 I'm Carolyn Ridpap, and I'm a member of the Montpelier Homelessness Task Force, and we have several people here from that task force, Tori and Nat. Thank you for coming, and tonight I have with me Colby Lynch and Matthew Whelan. They're here to put more of a face on the many people in our area who are currently unhoused. In November 2022, Paige Gerton and I, with the support from the Homelessness Task Force, organized a presentation on the root causes of homelessness. Beth Burgess presented a study that she and others carried out under the auspices of what is now named the Washington County Homeless Coalition. The results of the study were based on a series of interviews with people living in motels under the state's transitional housing program. These interviews provided important insights about the broad range of reasons why people become unhoused. The main causes reported were almost one-third of the people interviewed said they lost housing due to lack of money or losing their job. Over one-fifth of the interviews, the deweys became homeless as a result of divorce or a breakup, another form of economic hardship for many. Nearly a fifth linked their loss of secure housing to substance use. A number of these men and women had cycled through rehab several times. Most were in recovery, but had not used for years. Nearly one in seven lost housing due to consequences of being injured or having a physical health condition. Underlying much of this trauma is trauma, both in early life and as a result of being unhoused. Today we will consider a broader spectrum of people who are currently unhoused, not just those who qualify for the state's transitional housing program. The majority of these people are being housed temporarily in motels, but there are others who are sleeping in cars, outside or couch surfing. In the Barry Montpelier area, there are currently approximately 450 people in the motels and shelters, many of whom will be exited in the coming months due to an end to the pandemic era federal funding. It is difficult to count the number of people outside, but it is estimated there are about 20 in our area. Those numbers are certain to increase as people exit motels and the weather turns warmer. As a community, we need to determine how we will aid, support and provide temporary protection for these people. Permanent housing will be a possibility for many, but it will years before that need is met. We will describe how a variety of these causal factors resulted in her living in a motel unit with her partner. Her trajectory included job loss, economics and ultimately a dearth of affordable housing. Matt will explore the role of trauma and substance abuse in leading to folks living on the street in Brattleboro. We hope that by listening to these two presentations, you will come to understand that every person who has become unhoused has their own unique story. What they all have in common is that they do not have permanent, safe and affordable housing and at present there is little hope of obtaining it. There is a need for all kinds of shelter and support ranging from temporary shelters like Good Samaritans, Three Shelters and Berry in Berlin and the Over and Flow Shelter in Montpelier to a variety of more permanent low income and or low barrier housing possibilities including the proposed Habitat for Humanity project on Northfield Street and the Country Club Road site, both of which are seeking public input and involvement. Now I would like to present our speakers. I am going to start with Colby. Hi, my name is Colby Lynch. For any of you guys that picked up one of these metamorphosis in reverse, feel free to read along with what I have to say. On the cover of this right here are some blurbs from the bridge article that was printed homeless in a housing shortage and featuring mine and my partner's situation. And I have started this out with right here, shows picture of Vermont. It says housing is community. An American society we consider abject houselessness as a lack of shelter not as the breakdown of community that it actually is. Housing is commodity. Housing has become a commodity rather than the basic human right that it actually is. My vulnerability is betrayed by my courage and drive to change things right here at home. So I am going to start off with a poem and I name this poem Metamorphosis in Reverse. So this basically encompasses the way I feel about living in the motel. Trading shells for wings, indeed there's such a thing. It's easy to fly when there is a stiff wind blowing down the mountain. Great ideas from up above flowing like a fountain. Everything seems possible when the sails open up and bloom. Ride those vectors, turn that tide, up here there's plenty of room. See the whole big picture, succeed and thrive and grow, up above unlimited, birds eye view of down below. Those winds don't come, no waters run is when it gets quite scary. Troubles arise and birds appear that are far too much to carry. Here we are stationary and stagnant, hope seems so far away. You wonder why this happened and question how you will face today. You get stuck, you're out of luck, muster just a little pluck, try to keep your spirits up but deep inside realize your effort. Time marches on and on and on and you become despondent reactive guarded knowing well it's nothing that you did that got this whole thing started. All your efforts to fly and breathe and open up your perception does not compute your voices mute antenna without reception. The shell you've been given seems a refuge but only for a minute. Free to roam and do as you please but pent up while you're in it. Goals unlikely to be met reversing now butterfly effect. Times running out you've got no clout this isn't what you're all about this can't be true this is not you the voice is seen to scream when I'm in the shell that's where I dwell somewhere in between. First foolish impatience have become my closest friends in this nowhere land of limbo that never seems to end speaking seeking to speak and breathe again somewhere safe and sound. So here I go my legs are found stretching them gently on the ground. Innocence lost is wisdom bound. So next I'm going to read the testimony that I read to the house general and housing and house human services. It was for the homeless homelessness awareness day in January up at the state house and it was on January 19th 2023. My name is Colby Lynch and I currently live at the quality in and Barry. First I'd like to give a bit of background information on how exactly my partner and I found ourselves living in a hotel room. When the pandemic began we were both home care providers. Tyler had been working with an agency out of Moore town for over a decade. He was great at the job of caregiving and I was relatively new though my background is a single parent prepared me well. All was going smoothly with work. However our living situation became a precarious one. The owner of the house we were renting to the tune of $1,600 per month had plans to sell the property and needed to fix it up. I was hoping that we could continue staying there through this transition but that was not the case. We had been given a notice to vacate within three months. At the time we didn't really think it was that big of a deal other than the arduous task of moving our belongings during mud season. We secured a room through front porch form and moved in at the beginning of May 2021. Despite our desire to make the living situation work we recognize that we had to leave what had become an unhealthy living situation. By that time it was the height of the housing crisis and there were no options available no matter how much money you made. So we found ourselves living in our van. When you are living in a vehicle and the temperatures are getting down to 28 degrees it is a life changing experience. One I still have not fully recovered from. We moved into a hotel room on November 4th, 2021. We were just glad to be somewhere warm and not living in our vehicles. But I want to stress the reality that motel rooms are for vacations or weekend excursions not everyday life. For example I am grateful for the lady who reached out when I posted our story on the Hunger Mountain Co-op Community Board. She allowed me to use her camp stove so I could boil some water and correctly put away my garden goods for the winter. I used to take pride in the ability to grow food and can it properly. When I had a kitchen I was quite the entertainer with elaborate meals that were the outcome of my garden growing ventures. I don't get to entertain much these days. In the motel room we have a microwave and a one pot coffee maker. The set of drawers to keep our clothing in were all busted before we moved in. I keep my clothing in the armory and in laundry baskets stacked on top of each other. It is quite the ordeal to put together a simple matching outfit sometimes. These days I work with the public waiting tables and bartending. Wearing dirty ill-fitting or damaged clothes is not a good look when you have this sort of job. I could go on but my main message is this, if there were housing units available then we would be in one right now. Vermont has no housing safety net. We had to switch careers because if we made even $60 more than we currently make at low-wage jobs we would not be able to stay at the hotel. But this is a chicken and egg situation. Even if we find housing we have to show that we can afford it. But we can't secure more lucrative income sources because if we do we are kicked out of our current situation and will be homeless again. We see signs that everywhere is hiring but having no homes available to rent is impacting folks ability to apply for these jobs. If this great need for unavailable housing persists Vermont will lose a lot of good workers. It is comforting to know that there are those who hold public office that do truly care. That being said I shouldn't have to feel like a violated community standard just by simply existing. These days the weariness of the situation has my spirits draining rapidly. I know that I'm physically and mentally a strong individual capable of a lot of good. I'm a mother to a grown boy a visionary artist and a worthy confidant. I enjoy a good laugh even at the expense of myself. But having no place to live is no laughing matter. The devacing stereotypes towards a homeless need to be eradicated from public dissent. Perhaps the day will come when I can look back and chuckle at the desperation behind emptying my middle-aged bladder in a fire yogurt container in the dead of the early morning. Freezing my behind off in the car because the water pump in the van went out again. Or waiting in anticipation for the dreaded cop knock on the van window assaulting my precious sleep just to make sure quote unquote everything is okay. A day will come when I'm able to stretch out on my own couch again or have access to a table to do my art in my own space or cook in my own kitchen so I can entertain friends and family at my dinner table. A situation such as this can be debasing and destabilizing. I am thankful that I can choose for it not to be demoralizing. I have made a few friends at the motel. Grit and candor and I like to think wisdom has pulled me through this experience thus far. I only wish to use my testimony as a way of addressing the issues acting and moving forward. The words of Eleanor Roosevelt have become clear to me in these chaotic times. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. I will end on this note. Thank you. That was a false ending by the way. I actually have more that that was I like the applause though. That was what I read for the for the big waves up at the state house. So that was that that wasn't a like an abbreviated edition of a lot that's in this. So if you guys are interested in the full unedited version of the story this is a timeline of exactly how we became homeless. My partner and I and to back it up a bit when I moved to Vermont five years ago we lived in Montpelier. I used to work at the uncommon market right up the street. I'm really familiar with the area being in Barry's been an adjustment because in that those other years we were living out in Brookfield at that house that I was talking about that was $1,600 a month. But I can say that regarding the living situation is challenging as it was sometimes working with people that had brain injuries and autism and just different things. It could be a challenge but I felt a lot more secure those days regarding you know where we were going to exist. So anyway I wanted to point to this because I had them put it up on the board. I came up with this little upside down Maslow's hierarchy and needs for anybody that's studying psychology that's familiar with that. Well this is the inverted hierarchy and needs because when you lose your place to live you got to start down at the bottom. So the bottom of the little pyramid says reason to be. Why one gets out of bed in the morning instead of giving up and doing nothing. And I'll tell you right now I see a lot of people that give up and do nothing and it's horrible you know and it just is a hopelessness that just kind of sucks you in and takes you over. I'm a fighter. I've always been a fighter. I lift weights. I run. I'm not to my own horn but I'm saying I keep my body in good physical condition and a lot of that reason is because I know when the time does come for the next phase of this whole story. I want to be able to move my belongings and not have to like hire someone and pay them to help me with it. I don't know if we oh we're trying to get that back on. Okay so up from okay. As he's free don't move. All right so up from the reason to be I'll just read it off from here is a will to live which is having the confidence and bravery to act upon one's reason to existing. So reason to be you found your purpose next up the ladder is will to live you want to keep going. Next one up the ladder and I had to do this when I started working at the bowling alley because obviously it's impossible to be a homeless home care provider. So I wasn't really planning on going back to waiting tables but I saw that as something that I enjoyed doing. I ended up working at the bowling alley in Berlin and I really love my crew there and good good people. So the next one on the pyramid network of influence a sufficient network of family friends co-workers and social connection to act efficaciously. So that's basically saying you know you someone's got your back. You know I go to work I do my job we can call you know call out call each other in you know we're on that network doesn't mean that I can move in with them because a lot of people are going through the same kind of thing to work in two or two or three jobs in some cases just to keep the roof that they have over their head. The next one's important to me it's predictable environment with the motel program running out and right now we don't know when that's going to be my predictable environment could change like that again and that's why I said metamorphosis metamorphosis in reverse because as it stands right now and we we still haven't found the apartment we could be living in the vehicles again. So my predictable environment has gone up and down like that my constant steady has been maintaining a job staying true to myself you know through writing this this has been very cathartic to me getting this out speaking out sharing it with people because when this all first happened I was hitting the panic button and I was doing the why I was doing that oh my god I've never been through anything like this before and then I went through the anger we didn't do anything wrong how could this happen you know and all of that was counterproductive all that was eating at me and I just I threw it all away and I said no we're going to focus on how we're going to fix this so after the predictable environment satisfaction of physiological needs so basically for me I've got a place to take a shower I've got food I mean I write about it in here even keeping food in a little fridge like the side of a bar fridge it's like a dorm room fridge you put stuff in there it's going to ice up the fridge it's going to ruin your food so I drive around with a cooler in my car I get the ice for free for my job and that's how I eat healthy because all that other all that stuff that you know I mean you know you eat too much bread you eat too much salt I know what it does it changes your moods and in the past I've had some unhealthy living choices but when all this started happening I started buckling down and saying I got to take care of me I don't have anything to fall back on now God knows I'm not getting any younger I'm 48 years old so up there right there says enjoying the luxury of a good night's rest comfortable clothing adequate shelter clean air and water and a good meal and I think that's really what people want you know when you don't have some of that stuff like we were when we were living in the van for three weeks and I'll give the backstory briefly about that after we had left that $1,600 a month place because the guy was going to fix it up we ended up at this other place and when I outlined that unhealthy living situation there was mold there they they there was a time when we couldn't cook any meals because of the stove broke and it was a fire hazard like when you turn it on it and then it sounded like it would blow up it was a gas stove so a few other tenants moved in and I warned them about the situation I said I don't really use the oven because it's a fire hazard and the landlord wasn't doing anything about it so when the landlord you know got a whiff of the fact that I wasn't putting up with it she was kind of on eggshells and then finally she said I'm giving you guys 60 day it was a verbal notice and I was just like okay you understand we work with disabled people we got nowhere to go and she said well my daughter needs your bedroom so I said okay well I guess we're going to live in the van is what I said because that was what ended up really happening but when I tried to get help through the state it wasn't a slam dunk there was this they were asking me for written eviction notices and I said we don't have anything like that it was a verbal notice so after that while we were homeless I'm going to read this part right here because you're going to hear the desperation of my voice on this one um and this was written to the Harold newspaper that's over in Randolph and I said dear editors and they actually printed my homeless and living in a van story I'm writing to you today to raise awareness and to the issue issue of homelessness in Vermont I can't say that I've ever been in this position before so if I skip around please excuse the chaos attaches the experience that my boyfriend and I have been through that led to us staying in our van in a parking lot it is not drugs or mental mental illness or other issues that everyday people may assume the conundrum is that I've looked into getting help getting help to get us back into a roof over our heads and the struggle has been difficult for the last few months I've been following the outcomes of the Vermont state house decisions regarding the hotel voucher program being extended a lot of the folks receiving the vouchers have been receiving help since COVID-19 group communities worldwide Governor Scott's decision to end the voucher program was equated to the game of kick the can recently in a local newspaper editorial it appears to me at this time that individuals need to be elderly have dependent children or one on the way disabled or in the mental health system in order to receive a hand up while they are houseless I am able-bodied and I put able-bodied in quotes because once getting down to 28 degrees and you're in a vehicle I'm not I'm not bare grills I'm going to get cold I'm going to be freaking out and I just put that out there my son has grown grown in on his own I work a full-time job providing a vocational program for a disabled person through gardening that's what I was doing at the time at this time I should be focusing my efforts on the greenhouse project that is in store for our agency this winter in my free time I have been bringing awareness to the homeless issue in Vermont it is going to get cold soon and living outside in parking lots could be fatal to some folks even able-bodied ones I have noticed that there are community drives going on to obtain supplies such as tents warm clothes etc for those living outdoors this is helpful in the intention behind it's in the right place but right now we need active community action and advocacy some of us myself included need better options than a nod at the situation and identification that there's a housing crisis going on here basic shelter is a human right and quite frankly it scares me when I consider that my boyfriend and I could wind up statistics frozen in a van in a parking lot and put exclamation point we are doing our best right now to fix our situation I am aware that the rental market is scarce right now and I've called around to different agencies in the area such as capstone community services the economic services division and looked into the v-wraps program for relocation in closing I thank you for your time and reading about our experience I have attached currently living in a van if so inclined you may edit it for publication so it was basically when I was working with my person and doing the gardening I didn't quit my job I just couldn't do the job anymore because we now anywhere to live but also because it was a $60 you know I might make $60 too much one paycheck and then we're going to be out in the van again so I was like okay I got to take outside the box here and get another job and that's a job that I currently have but I wrote I was writing stuff down and this little thing I picked up at the berry library it says washington county survivors guide and it's got a bunch of tips on self-care the community meals that kind of stuff um and I just wrote stuff on here that's when I came up with metamorphosis in reverse I wrote down race to the bottom because that's what it feels like is going on with us you know in the hotel program running out and um I wrote down seeing in a different light through another lens meaning that in this situation I see this whole this whole thing that's homelessness through a different light because it's my lens those two pieces that are on that table is what I do in my free time I make art those are that's actually bar glass that I turned into pieces it's polymer clay on glass with a resin cast and these things that I make I cut up clay on the side of the tub because I really look for any flat surface and he's got his computer on on our little desk thing so I'm very creative about making create creative things in the past I used to make these big elaborate lanterns and they call me the beacon's light art lantern lady and I'm still a lantern lady but right now I feel like I'm not working to my full capacity because I don't have space to to create like I used to so if you ask me how I feel right now when I wrote race to the bottom here um I was thinking of it in analogy of I've heard from a lot of people yeah you came into this motel thing at the worst the crisis couldn't have been worse it was like a total perfect storm for you guys and I'm like yeah I realize this it kind of felt like if you want to grease if you can imagine this because I do I have a lot of visual images that's why I'm an artist but like you have a grease ladder you're trying to climb up and it's getting colder and colder as you're getting up your hands start to freeze and you're losing and you keep falling and we keep falling you keep hitting your head you know when you're like this didn't work try to get and then finally the ladder just disappears then you're at the bottom and then you're just like all right let's go back to what we were doing a year and a half ago because I don't know what else to do so right now at this point in time I'm really hoping to make an or I call an organic connection um with somebody that will have a place for us um because I like I've said I've had all the emails out there I've called the numbers I've just I had a few people just you know the last one I talked to that was a perspective um you know landlord said something that it was a red flag something I said to him was a red flag as a landlord because I was talking about the mold in the last place and I was just like I'm just I didn't even know what to say I was stunned and I'm like I'm just trying to tell you the truth that's why it didn't work out we were asked to leave we didn't get a victory we did not pay our rent we just had to leave you know and um I think sometimes people try to put fault where there isn't any I guess but I don't know we just want somebody to give us a chance at this point and um yeah that's where I'm at but if you'd ask me if I feel like I'm hopeless no I do not some days I do and some days I have to like pull myself out of it just say okay right now I can't look at anything negative I don't watch news that too much unless it's something local because I think it's important I want to stay here my partner wants to stay here we love Vermont he's been here longer than I have he's been here over over 10 years um we did the long distance relationship for a while when my son was growing up over to the other border New Hampshire but um I think I'll share the time so thanks guys thanks for listening um thanks Colby that was really good that was really powerful testimony I hadn't not seen that before um uh thanks for being here tonight thanks for inviting me Karen um I'm very glad to be here and it's always encouraging particularly in such isolating times to meet and be among people uh yes uh it's always encouraging particularly in such isolating times to meet and be among people gathering to understand and work together on these problems um I wrote this basically keeping to sort of two uh parts the first part on the what you've called in the past the root causes of homelessness and the second part on basically what we can do about it um there's obviously no simple or single answer to this many factors are at play it's worth noting that increases in homelessness nationally began in the years and I think specifically the year right before COVID-19 so it is a little difficult to know exactly what was causing the rise in homelessness nationally before the pandemic happened but I think it goes without saying that there's no single cause of homelessness and that each case of homelessness or housing and security is usually caused and perpetuated by multiple interacting and overlapping factors um to give some background on my work and how I became interested in this topic may be helpful uh for the past six or seven years uh I have been writing oral history and journalism for the most part my work focuses on homelessness and imprisonment uh in America uh in both places sorry in both cases my goal is to place those directly experiencing the issue at the center of my work to have their voices and experiences tell the stories rather than my own or experts um one reason I became interested in the subject of homelessness and felt I could contribute something to the discussion about it uh was that for a couple of years in Brattleboro uh where I was living and still live uh there was a great deal of debate and controversy in local government local news media among business owners police and other well-to-do segments of the community about different problems caused by the presence of homeless people in town news articles began appearing regularly about locals who feel uncomfortable with poor people asking for money on the street locals who feel the presence of homeless people or panhandlers is bad for business other low locals nervous about a winter homeless shelter being moved to a location that is too close to other things where people who are not homeless hang out um the tension of this topic and the stream of coverage about it seemed to coincide with the closing of a place called the wall in Brattleboro the wall was a long alleyway privately owned by someone who's just a tolerant person new people in the community uh where homeless people could congregate would congregate spend time together unwind even sleep uh the wall was closed down after an overdose there an overdose death there prompting the homeless to spread out all over town each day and non-homeless locals to have to see more homeless people in more places throughout the day for years in all of these local newspaper articles and there were many of them select board meetings town meetings meetings of local business owners and more homeless people were not in attendance at the discussions about them nor were they sought out uh strikingly they were also not quoted or sought out for interviews in any of the news articles about them throughout this couple year long stretch before the pandemic in which the local press was focusing on stories about their lives uh in one case um one of the main papers i won't name it but you can probably guess uh even published a story pertaining to homelessness with a picture on the cover that they went all the way into downtown to take of a homeless man drinking a beer in public and in the article that the picture was for they did not quote the man they'd taken a picture of or any other homeless people they interviewed and quoted a handful of locals business owners select board members cops the usual suspects who are not homeless took a picture of a homeless person and interviewed no homeless people for that story on homelessness uh having known and been close to many people experiencing homelessness and poverty in town over the years along with having a growing interest in the craft of oral history writing i felt i had an opportunity to help tip this imbalance in whose voices and experiences were highlighted in the literature news and discourse on homelessness and in the town over the last few years i've conducted hundreds of interviews extensive interviews with homeless people and prisoners in america my most important job and i would argue the most important job of any writing and one of the most important skills in life generally i think is listening listening to the life stories of the sources who are experiencing the issues directly and getting to know them largely created the perspective i bring to this talk today um with that in mind uh i'd like to get into the subject of the root causes of homelessness by touching it a bit on what generally are not the root causes of homelessness because that um came up a lot when i was getting involved in the work one narrative about the causes of homelessness that i found to be common among people who are not homeless from former select board members to small business owners to locals i'd find myself next to at the bar or a coffee shop is that people choose to be homeless that the majority of homeless people on the streets of brattle borough live outside because they prefer to or don't have a home because they don't want one other variations of this theory went so far as to claim that the people asking for money on the streets of that brattle borough so-called panhandlers were pretending to be homeless that many of them actually had homes that they were making hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars a day asking for money on the street um i know it's it's not um it's not perhaps i was surprised and i remain surprised over the years by the prevalence of these beliefs because of frankly how outlandish they seem for one of my books i even tried to seek out people who panhandle even though they have a home i was able to find only one and if there's time at the end i'd be happy to discuss his situation what it was like to interview him but even there it's not like he was uh pretending to be homeless he was still not in a good living situation in any event particularly in a more or less liberal town in which locals generally seem otherwise well informed and consider themselves tolerant of others i've been surprised by how widespread and normalized such borderline conspiracy theories presented without evidence have become and how openly obligated they seem toward the poor similarly i'm also surprised that the local newspaper wrote story on after story on subjects pertaining to homelessness uh homeless life in town without thinking to interview homeless people to quote in those stories would they do this if they were writing stories about any other group of people in my experience working with homeless people and getting to know them i have found no credibility in these choice uh based theories about uh why people become homeless others assume that the homeless are primarily drug addicted or mentally ill however rather than the assumed addiction or mental illness causing compassion or empathy the reverse often happens homeless people homeless people are painted and seen as inherently less trustworthy because it is assumed they are mentally ill or drug drug addicted strikingly many people are quicker to assume that homeless people are drug addicted or mentally ill mentally ill than they are to assume that homeless people are poor and the homeless are often seen as responsible for their addiction for not getting help for not getting a job etc a contradiction arises there's an undertone to attitudes that attribute homelessness to choice suggesting that people are homeless in some way deserve to be homeless an attitude uh ironically often held by the very same people who feel the most uncomfortable and threatened by encountering homeless people out on the street often the people who do not believe in free housing uh and uh and more housing uh for the poor and homeless for example are the same people who complain the most about encountering them in the street in my experience the belief in one form or another that people end up homeless or panhandling handling simply by some form of a choice which is probably an appealing belief precisely because it is the simplest explanation is in fact so abstract and philosophical that it is not helpful to the discussion in very few instances is it possible to identify a moment in which a person made a choice to become homeless on his or her journey but more importantly even in the rare instances in which we can identify the moment in which a person chose in some way to be homeless that knowledge all by itself that such a choice was made offers little to nothing in the way of explaining the cause of their homelessness the choice explanation does not contribute to the conversation about why people become homeless is a way to shut that conversation down narratives that take place that's something i'd be happy to elaborate more on q and a to you narratives that take uh narratives that place the cause of homelessness squarely on personal responsibility typically cause people to be afraid of homeless people which leads to cause for more calls for more policing rather than more housing or other services services and more policing makes the problem of homelessness worse in brattle borough for example funding has increased to the police in recent years and crime has gone up anyways some causes of homelessness will continue to cause homelessness unless they're dealt with currently these causes are not being dealt with for example many years the number one cause of personal bankruptcy is medical debt though bank personal bankruptcy and homelessness are not necessarily the same personal bankruptcy doesn't always lead to homelessness necessarily the cost of housing and rent uh is sky high and wages have not kept up with productivity or the cost of living since the late 1970s furthermore recent studies have shown that a majority of people who are homeless last year also worked meaning that in america the richest nation in the history of the world you can work and still end up homeless keep this in mind next time you see someone yell get a job at a person asking for money on the street seen that way it's easier to understand why some homeless people who don't work don't simply get a job why bother in many instances getting a job barely helps at all and you'll end up homeless anyways factors like these people spending all their money on rent or health care while they are not making enough at work are basic problems that will continue to cause homelessness unless they are solved in my opinion many other causes of homelessness are complicated by the fact that there are also effects of homelessness unemployment for example can lead to homelessness and homelessness can cause or exacerbate unemployment the same is true of addiction and mental health issues being homeless can make you more likely to have more encounters with law enforcement and spend time in jail or prison and encounters with law enforcement and spending time in jail or prison can also make you more likely to be homeless this does not mean there's no answer to the question of what causes homelessness rather there are many correct and often interacting answers for many different people some commonalities throughout the homeless population are notable childhood poverty and lack of opportunities beginning in childhood is perhaps one of the most important themes many people men and women alike have been physically abused in some way at some point before their homelessness however there are many exceptions to commonalities like these and people of diverse economic backgrounds regularly become homeless the main common theme in my opinion is bad luck going through an extended stretch of life often right from the beginning suffering one major loss after another and ending up with no place to live or call home since we have common themes and many different but often overlapping useful answers to the causes and effects of homelessness which again are often the same one of the next questions in my mind becomes how to treat people who are homeless both as a society and interpersonal in our individual day-to-day lives surprisingly this was one of the main subjects of debate when the subject when the topic of homelessness arose as it did several years ago in Brattleboro as you gathered by now I do not believe the narratives that make sense of homelessness by blaming the life choices of individual homeless people saying a homeless person is homeless by choice or calling homeless a homeless person asking for money in the street a panhandler is a little bit like calling a prisoner sedentary or indoorsy making assumptions about the personal choices of homeless people is neither accurate nor helpful in coming up with solutions on a broad scale the question of what we can do about homelessness in my view is a two-prong question and the answer to the first part is simpler than the answer to the second part the first question is how we treat homeless individuals in our community interpersonally when we encounter them if you became homeless how would you want people to treat you after all it could happen to you your odds of becoming a homeless are a lot higher than people may think about one in 200 in America with some adjustments made for the economic background the person starts out from the question of what we uh sorry already yeah and if you are someone who feels offended uncomfortable or threatened by the presence of homeless people in your town keep in mind that what you want is the same as what people want who are sympathetic to homeless people not to see people living out on the street the second part of the question is what we can do politically about the problem beyond the interpersonal and individual level how we can organize to address the problem more broadly in society with the end goal being the near eradication or virtual eradication of homelessness this becomes complicated because so many factors cause and perpetuate homelessness simultaneously that working to solve homelessness will often mean devoting ourselves to you and advocating for and against issues that appear on the surface to be separate from homelessness but are deeply related such as mass incarceration healthcare excuse me uploaded military budget to name a few um so let's take the first question first how we should treat homeless people we encounter at the individual level in day to day life and in my opinion the answer to that is rather simple it's just to be kind open to getting to know people and to be non nonjudgmental don't be any less open to interacting with knowing or being friends with those from with those from lower economic backgrounds than yourself than you are with anyone else don't do not make assumptions about how people who ask for money on the streets will spend that money or pass judgment on them based on assumptions about their spending habits do not assume that homeless people are dishonest or untrustworthy do not assume they're mentally ill do not assume they're drug addicted do not assume they prefer not to work and if you discover any of these things to be true about any particular homeless person do not assume that this adequately explains even that particular person's situation always assume it is more complicated and it doesn't keep hurt to keep in mind that this could be you someday now to the second more complicated question of what we can do politically more broadly to address the issue on a societal scale there are no new or simple answers to this question it is important to get together and organize in politics as it is impossible to accomplish anything alone find people who are standing up to the problem working on solutions and helping people advocate together the more homeless and formally homeless people involved in and leading the organizing the better but it's important not to be entirely discouraged if organization among currently homeless people in particular is sometimes scarce when the homeless cannot participate it is the responsibility of those with relative privilege resources and time to do the organizing and take action too often those who want to help cannot and those who can help do not want to when it comes to homelessness pressing for increased socioeconomic services that support the unhoused is important and pressing for more housing and more free and affordable housing is more important however again if we are truly concerned with the root causes of homelessness it is important to organize just as hard in local and national politics alike around issues that often do not appear on the surface be directly related but do cause and contribute to the problem of homelessness as with every issue in our time it is frustrating to try to act because it often feels nothing is getting done by our political elites to address any of the problems we care about especially the national level except by making them worse and because each problem we urgently care about is connected to other problems we care about that often nothing is also being done about it is easy to get discouraged by the intractable nature of our political climate but this intractability is precisely why we need more organizing more advocacy more protest more action taken by citizens on more issues is not a reason to give up so I'll end that by saying often in politics there is a battle of mobilization getting together and organizing with people who share your concerns about the problem and your desire to get involved and desire to get involved in the struggle gatherings like the one here tonight are a crucial part of that process it's not always about changing minds often it is about getting people who already agree with the struggle to get involved in taking action and this is perhaps the most crucial part of taking political action sometimes in politics however there is a battle of persuasion on many issues the divisions between americans with different political beliefs run so deep that they're increasingly less likely to engage with each other in the battle of persuasion preferring the battle of mobilization we are less likely to engage with those who disagree with us we might even find their views totally offensive I'd like to say that there's no upside to abandoning the battle of persuasion and no downside to engaging it even when our chances of convincing people are low when we engage in the battle of persuasion there's a small chance we will change minds and a larger chance we won't there's no chance we will change minds if we do not engage worst-case scenario the person you're trying to convince will feel the same way they already did and I'll end by noting again that on the issue of homelessness specifically there's at least one point of common ground among people who are made uncomfortable by seeing homeless people in the street and hold prejudice views towards them people who are sympathetic to the homeless community and homeless people themselves none of us want to see people living out on the street my hope is that in addition to the mobilization people who are sympathetic to the homeless this commonality can also be the beginning of alliances even among people who disagree with each other and often especially at the local level and I think I'll stop there okay and at this point we'll open it up for questions observations I saw a lot of people of nodding their heads at various points if you want to reinforce what was said you'd like to speak I've met a lot of you on these streets I say good morning whatever as I come to the library I've been homeless for four years I'm 70 years old I'm a veteran I did 23 years in the Vermont National Guard and I'm proud of it I was living in Montpere on Montsenier Crosby when the big flood came through town I donated my boat I watched everybody come together work as a team and save the people's businesses get people out and save their lives I watched a car and a pack a motor vehicle pack a lot brand new guy jumped out of it ran into motor vehicles it tumbled into the river and went down river I saw that personally everybody in this town come work together I used to drive school bus here for a number of years middle school for the young kids I helped build a playground never know a sock I was involved in that in the playground up here I volunteered and a bunch of people that ran businesses in this area donated lumber and everything including now a lumber company we built a playground for kids on a weekend everybody can work together and help homeless yes there's some bad homeless out there I won't disagree I'm alcohol drug free and I needed a place to live the reason I got homeless I was living in a trailer that was so full of black mold it made me sick I moved into a fifth wheel camper with my little dog and my poor dog he froze he cuddled up in three quilts I bought propane tanks because it's the only thing I had was these 20 pound cylinders I went through three loads a week with a subgroup five tanks in peace and paid dearly to get them filled I had to take them into Hampshire it was the cheapest place to buy fuel even insulate the camper campers are jumped for insulation anybody that owns a fifth wheel will tell you the same thing even brand new one's insulation about that's it I had to move out of there I sold that piece of land and just about gave it away because of the black mold trailer I was building a tiny house up behind the trailer which I made a deal with a guy that he would let me have it well myself I couldn't I was so sick I couldn't get everything moved off the property he kept the tiny house people from New York that bought an inn right in West Thompson Village at the church I was going to every weekend this woman walked up because she had a good week and had me five hundred dollars in cash and says put some an angel told me to give you this to put insulation into your tiny house and I said I will work my butt off to be every back every cent back and I will I used to go over and shovel her pathway around the end so people get into it we go there and have our get-togethers and everybody did pop lock everybody knows what pop lock is everybody eats together so you know what I mean that's what this place is about my prayer I am proud of a lot better than Barry I've lived at the budget in I had lived at the one you lived at which is the best motel in that area as far as I'm concerned I lived at the no motel and from there I went on the street because the vendor ran out 30 below zero this cult right here there's a lot of women when I had on I slept under bridges and I did this I walked the street to bury from culling primes to culling primes all night long just to keep wants I wouldn't praise to death I had no choice I'm not proud of it but I'm a human being it's like this old story from the church red and yellow black and white all the same Indian I'm mixed breed I'm Abhinaki Indian I'm proud of it I also got Irish Scottish I have an attitude problem sometimes okay but I'm a mixed breed I'm still human being just like everybody like the story I heard from you and from you I've met and talked to a lot of homeless people I smoke cigarettes I passed out cigarettes right left even if I was poor if they needed money for coffee I'd give it to them I'd give my shirt off my back to a homeless person I'll tell you why because it's a human being they all need help some of them like he said it could be drugs it could be abuse I've met women that've been so badly abused I've talked to them a total stranger wrote browns in the back with them and met them I've walked up to a lot of people everyone I walked down Main Street or State Street because I do it for exercise I say good morning some will say yes welcome and I say oh it's going to be a good day today I walked around I said I heard it's spring I should be here shortly and here we got a big snow so I'm coming I've watched a guy out in front playing his guitar out on the corner I come down here and use the library and I thank the ladies very much every time I use the computer so I can go online and check my emails about jobs about anything build the materials because I want to build another tiny house and I will and I'll take you and move it someplace but there's a lot of people out there are a lot worse than I am on and they've got reasons I feel bad that the person that got stabbed down here at the transit center I met that person in barrier one time I hope he makes it I met a guy over here at the uh right in front of shots tonight he's a friend of that guy he says I hope he lives I said tonight in all the way up where I went and came back here I prayed for that guy that he would make it I told that guy I would pray for a swim because I'm not a perfect Christian but I usually go to a mountain top and I talk to God everybody's got a different way of doing it okay or I go to practice church or other churches I've been in church all my life even when I was in the National Guard I'd go talk to a certain person I trained a whole bunch of men to do things diesel mechanic everything everything the army had I could drive it okay but to get away from that because I could go on all night if you can do something to help a homeless person even if it's a wine a cup of coffee because he's cold don't buy him a beer buy him a cup of coffee grab him a sandwich and pass it to him the guy will think you 100% over am I right or a girl will do the same thing because it's something they need the food shelf is great but the only problem I don't like about the food shelf they're brightest frozen I can't keep it in my motel room less than a week and it turns black mold I threw two out today got evicted out of the motel in Montpere but that's another story itself I'm back on the street officially but when I walked underneath back and forth underneath ain't very safe and come into cuddling and I had a thin coat Montpere gave me this coat I got into city hall I got two that day it was a donation thing from some of you people this is my later one I still got the heavy one I think whoever donated 100% over believe me because everything I had in my trailer when black mold went through it I lost all my clothing my house trailer that I owned and paid for and I had to walk away from that and when my dog passed away it was one of the hardest things for me because I was my best friend I'd gone through a divorce with my ex after 45 years and I had to buy a trailer had to buy the land but the fools who put the roof on didn't know what they were doing and it leaked in and caused black mold and it ruined a good $5,000 trailer but do the community thing need to take care of people take people that are alive keep them alive surprising with a cup of coffee and a sandwich I do it all the time I buried the other night just for instance I had five bucks left tell me I'm walking to Berry City I see a sign out there dollar special rose day I bought two dozen roses I didn't have the money to take a blow but I did it and I walked down to three places people why I stopped to use the bathroom or to get a cup of coffee told strange women I said okay I'll use one Domino's I went in there that almost took two dozen right here there's many women they're working in Domino's and Berry but I had four left that went to Jim's mark because that's why he was about I stopped those girls I didn't I said this is just because you're hardworking used in this moment it was heavy sat then answered what are you doing here I said I can't how many girls are you gonna do these she says uh seven eight nine something like that I'll count as you came back over I said they're all different colors take these and pass them out when they're gone I would take the rest with me but it made those girls day because they've been working hard the guys looked at me like what are you doing in all these young chicks you know but I'm 70 years old and I got a lot of life left to me and I will fight to the veteran to help anybody in this world that need it because I've seen my prayer pull together and I see my prayer get us through floods and I don't my boat was only a rowboat but it helped say somebody and there was speedboats going up down the street everything so I know my prayer is a good time to start with Berry it's gone downhill a lot and I homeland at what period I gave the ex the house here I thought a lot of people here had something to offer a lot of heads nodding to somebody else want to ask a question or offer an observation Tory house that we're running out so if you can get on the front porch for him give him a call it's it sounds like it's pretty simple I think it's a bedroom and a second is sitting room it was for 950 yeah I do think he might have mentioned you need a four-wheel drive but the best thing to do is to call the person because it might work for you yeah and he said he said about he said it's good to have a formal drive but the doesn't drive without a formal drive okay I didn't know where it was that's why I mentioned that yes way up way up the street anything under it now so it's for the town yes and it includes I'm pretty sure it includes um yeah no there's a problem homelessness um our story is kind of like there's it's just hard you know this is I'm an educator I got a master's degree I won't do my story like Gary but um my mom is saying I've taken from my from my family whatever the money never so I was homeless I met her in the homeless of the hotel up here um but it's really hard um not only that with the advice that economic services gave to me was incorrect and it really kind of put me in a bind so they really don't know the answer as well even their managers don't know the answer because they're waiting on the federal funding to come in to say all right this is that this is this um I've had a really hard time getting correct answers from economic services and the only way to do it is if you call them you're on the phone for 12 hours and not not that's exactly I'm talking at least three to four hours and for one if you don't have any electricity to charge your phone then you know if you don't even have the internet you know it's just so you have to go there and if you don't have it you know the by-right thing up here is one of the best things I've ever seen really is the she gets around on it I have a truck I have my rp with my van that's a she walks a lot and I like to walk as well but the my right thing is a great program for welfare or anywhere else you know um it's just there's so many issues with with homelessness it's not only all here it's you know obviously the united states but you have to get it into your town you know you have to simplify it down into all right you're not palier we're not you know Joe smoke might have all we need to think about people in my career you know I know a lot of people don't not in my backyard that's it's in your yard and the only way to solve the problem is to get these get people a stable house because if you don't have a stable house how can you work on your mental health or if you're a drug addict right now how can you even think about it you can't challenge those challenges until you say every night I got a place to live believe it I've slept in this shit out of my van and it sucks I can handle it I'm bare grill but she can't you know but my dog can't the reason I mentioned the northfield street um habitat for humanity project is they solicit input and and it would be good if anybody can attend those hearings to emphasize the need for all kinds of low barrier they're scared if they speak up they're gonna be calling out on the street and that is that's one of the biggest problems really and it happens every single day the guy don't like their poems you know you know I can see if you know you're dealing with drugs and all that dumb shit yeah let's get them out of here but they don't have enough education to even bring it up to someone they don't even know how to hold out in this situation without you know it's just it's there's a lot of work to be had like I say it's going to be several years yeah yeah I just want to make an announcement and a request and like some of you already know about this but because of the stabbing um uh sweet the transit center warming hours which were between five o'clock in the afternoon and eight o'clock uh that in the evening when people could go to the old flow shelter but the transit center that's not available anymore so the churches are setting up uh every night between five and eight um various churches are going to have a warming shelter and it's going to be stacked but we need volunteers um I've got a sign of sheet where people if they're willing to volunteer um you know it'd be great to volunteer for one a particular night every week but you know I do a certain night a certain night that'd be fine as well so I'm going to leave you I've got these back here so if people would sign up I know some of you already know about about this but and any questions about what I just said is there a schedule of which church has been the schedule is going to come every week okay well I'm going to ask people to do the volunteer put your name your email and your telephone number so as soon as we know uh we can possibly if there's a if there's a I shouldn't make another column what day would be good to you okay you can put that in but we don't know right now it's just being set up so which churches are going to be open when I know okay just for people who are looking for them as soon as it's set up the word will be put out okay should we do some posters right the place to get to find out another way you can tell you which church is uh with Sam can tell you which church is and we're going to I'm only trying to go here I'm not running the program okay just asking can I ask you guys a question here are dormitories at the top of the hill there are for sale at the college actually would would that solve any of the problems with a dorm room as long as it has a fridge that you can have at least you know a freezer well that makes sense and then a place to cook you know just a simple two burner yeah and a place to do the dishes that's a lot better than a hotel room because it could be more comfortable yeah and luckily I had my RV and sold out there so but you know I just didn't know if that was a transitional house and even tried to push the city to absolutely and more rooms would be a hot place even if there was a you know kitchen I don't know if these doors are kitchens and you know because everybody else I don't know but like a like a rubbing house yeah like on when we had a little kitchen to use and yeah and when I go around yeah that would work something like even with it would be a safe place to leave your stuff you know when you don't have like the security of having a home or having something you would like to consider if you do or if it becomes very challenging and you don't really put the energy into it to really make yourself feel at home so that's always a constant struggle that's probably it was something that you're just driving for so you know just that's the main thing you have to have a stable home before you can work on yourself yeah because if you don't you're thinking about your state you're at home yeah and you know it's just very very that's the basic thing yeah okay I was just curious to know what you guys might think you know of course not you know there's rules and stuff you know you can't you know you have to think you're going to sit and get everything paid for for the rest of the time you know there's different programs and stuff I understand that I understand there's a time to help someone in a time not to just say all right we have to go through these steps and what's going on to help to better yourself you know there has to be a program where okay why are all these people in these hotels and okay what are you doing how are you trying to get a job are you in disability or are you working full-time well yes and you work I get it this rework as well and it's you can't you know the housing that's not the housing crisis is a whole different thing than the whole thing I'm going to interrupt at this point because that's some of the elements that I'm going to be hearing thank you so I totally get the politics I you know that we got to do some things but I haven't heard any proposals I read the paper every article about homelessness I read it I'm here I have not heard any proposal coming from the state from the city has anybody has anybody heard proposals you know I have one okay so I don't I don't know anybody personally that owns one of these homes but there are several homes out there that they use is it like Airbnb for example short-term you know and they in there's no cap on in number one these people that own these homes can ask whatever amount they want and then ask the person that we but why don't have why don't they have a vacancy room tax that those people that own those houses have to pay for every month I see kids at these motels there's no excuse for that and I get upset because when my someone brought up we had the same apartment for 13 years yeah I can't even imagine a moving a child to the motel what's that going to teach you about the goodness of people I have another question for those of you who are employed and can't find a place what would be an amount that you could afford to pay for rents you're looking at thousand bucks it's going to be a third third yeah I just saw one for like $1,500 when there's no electricity or anything like that you have to do that that's another 300 you know I don't know anything that's a concrete proposal for any kind of longer term housing at this point I can say earlier having that for humanity is considering proposals for housing I'm not sure what they'll come up with in the end but again anything that would be talking about housing would be probably three or four years out yeah there's a bill action which is in the senate appropriations committee right now if any of you which has a lot of it's it's an ominous bill obviously it's going to be hacked up and who knows what'll come out of it but I was at a meeting today the coalition homelessness for Washington County and Sumitra who is the director of capstone urged everybody and anyone who has any experience in homelessness particularly people who are homeless or work with homeless to to email testimony based on your own experience short just a short piece urging that this bill in some form be passed and I'll see if I can I should have brought the it's promoting a lot no it's it's a it's an on-the-bus it's a many faceted solution related to housing homelessness housing all the way from temporary emergency housing to more permanent housing congregate housing to a non-configured housing and a pathway from one to the other it would address the issue of the current hotel program it's a big now there's another thing that's happening is we're having elections here excuse me we're having elections in Montpelier and so I would pick people that you know to be sympathetic to this situation because if something's to be done in Montpelier City Council has to be on board with it so that's another approach in addition to going to the various developments and giving your input on that for those who don't vote I think they're gonna have to rely on us sorry well but but there are people who don't have a residency here so that oh okay we've abolished that now oh then vote vote vote the homelessness task force has hired some consultants to actually come up with an actionable plan to do something in Montpelier that is supposed to be presented to the city council sometime in March and the homelessness task force should hear it first and those meetings are open to the public they are I'm trying to think of a centralized email that we can use um the people could you could contact well the homelessness task force is 1130 in city hall every other we started March 1st March 15th right and and several members there's a bunch of us here what time is that 1130 in the morning until about one at the major at city hall in the main in the main and if you go if you go on the city website there's a um there's a list of we wanted to was navigate to agenda agendas agendas agendas and and I don't list all of the committees including the homelessness task force the wall side was the only yeah can you do you have access to the website yes I can get a hold yes okay so the city's website it's a little it's a little poochy but it does it has a button if you scroll down there's something that says agendas agendas yeah and you click on that against you know all the the listing of all those the committee meetings you can find the homelessness task force you can find city council they'll give you the agenda yeah that's cool the agenda for this next meeting is all three of the candidates for mayor are coming to talk to us about their ideas about homelessness yeah and that's the day after tomorrow that's right 1130 and and just for the record at the mayoral candidate meeting today there was talk about limiting air beyond these particularly in non-owner occupied houses I think they'll be enough to fight but I think it's a good one to fight there's some other regions that have done that with some of success oh New Orleans yeah I don't know what I'm talking about but I know it's been done do you have a lawyer? Mary? I really like tiny houses more and I feel like you know there's a possibility that I could really work towards that and from other people who's going in and I can see if I can get some funding I do have building experience and I have lived in them it was an ex-fishing shanty fix it's tiny but you know 16 foot more tiny house you know I think this is really key because a person could get started in it before and then when they move on and it's free for somebody out so there's all kinds of options you know with something like that and I really would like to venture into that if I know people that were interested and wanted to try to get some funding for that. Do you know what we have another person got? Five minutes to know. I agree with you on the tiny house thing because they used them for what was it the one way down south in New Orleans they put temporary housing on themselves then they sold them but they never made some of them they didn't use them and they started to mold because you know they were there tiny houses you can have a bedroom kitchen and a living room it's always basically in a bathroom and it's very simple to put together. The other gentleman here want to say something. You're mentioning the floods made me think of why don't we do something like Vermont strong for a Montpey here strong. Yeah I was there volunteering for the flood. I think that went over well. I wasn't here with that. I helped her a little bit because it was this line. But I wasn't here for that but I remember I think that went over really well the Vermont strong and so we have fundraiser for Montpey here. The other question I had was I know this is Montpey but up in Berlin a few years ago they tore down a whole row of houses and sold lumber because they were going to build some housing up there and still just sitting there. That's probably 10 years ago. About two or three minutes left. Is there anybody who hasn't had a chance to speak? Nat you want to say something? Page? Let Nat have a... Can I respond to what I'm hearing? It really concerns me deeply to hear you say that you haven't heard of a single proposal that would deal with this with this tangled and complicated issue. Am I hearing you correctly? There are... I've read high in the sky proposals. I haven't seen anything serious in the paper. Okay now I'm going to go into... I'm going to make a comment that I haven't researched. It's a hunch. I'm going to share a question. I think that the various jurisdictions that handle government are waiting for the state to act, are waiting for the communities to act, are waiting for the regional... Everybody's waiting for somebody to act because nobody wants nobody wants to be the guy that comes in and says your taxes go up 10%. Your taxes go up 15%. So that's my hunch is that there's a tug-of-war going on between the state and the local governments and all the other jurisdictions in between to see who's going to pay for this. But they may be wrong. Let's end it on that. I think there's a lot of truth to what you're saying. The critical thing I'm hearing tonight is we're finally hearing from people who have had... are having the experience of being unhoused in central Vermont. And I think that's incredibly valuable, particularly given that we have so many members of the homelessness task force here. If you choose to attend those meetings, they're on Zoom in addition to being in-person. And at the very opening, people introduce themselves. And then the next thing is public comment. So there's an opportunity to make a comment. It'll be limited in time because there are time constraints generally. But that's an excellent way of being heard and maybe not being quite as exposed as you might be in another circumstance. So I want to thank all of you for coming tonight. I think it's a wonderful turnout. And I think we've had a great conversation and had some depth to it.