Update on the Status of the Motel Program for Homeless Vermonters (

 

Montpelier PEN Special Issue: After the Flood… Building Forward

"Instead of thinking about building back, we could try thinking in terms of building forward. The impacts of climate change mean we should look hard at the future — what it’s going to be like — and make some changes." 

An excerpt from a Commentary in VTDigger (July 24, 2023) by Jim Stiles of St. Albans, a member of the Vermont Healthy Soil Coalition

To that end and as an engaged resident of Montpelier, please consider participating in one of the following efforts to plan forward.

A public forum will be held in Alumni Hall at the Vermont College of Fine Arts from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, to discuss challenges in wake of July flooding that Montpelier residents and businesses face today, as well as unmet needs. 

Also as part of the discussion, participants will consider longer-term issues and ideas toward the future. The meeting will be the first of three public meetings on Montpelier’s future. Future meetings will dig deeper into ideas that could be implemented to build a more resilient city, and frame key public priorities for action, organizers say. 

The meetings are being convened by Montpelier Strong, a partnership of the Montpelier Foundation and Montpelier Alive, in partnership with the City of Montpelier. According to organizers, “Everyone who lives, works or cares about Montpelier’s future is welcome.” They will be led by facilitator Paul Costello. (Times-Argus, August 4, 2023)

Montpelier Senior Activity Center (MSAC) Town Hall on August 17th

MSAC is in a time of transition, and so we're inviting all members* to a town hall-style meeting at MSAC on Thursday, August 17, 2023. This will be a conversation about what you, as members, need and want from our beloved Senior Center.

There will be two sessions: 

10:30 AM -11:30 AM and 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM.

Kelly Murphy, Assistant City Manager, and Arne McMullen, our newly appointed Director of Recreation & Senior Services, will be present. You'll be asked to sign up at the start of each meeting for a 2-minute time slot. This applies to both in-person and Zoom participants. Please join us for this important conversation. (Anyone living in Montpelier or surrounding towns and is aged 50+ may become a member by applying here.)

We will have a Zoom option available for both sessions— the links for which are published below. They'll also be republished in the next two MSAC e-newsletters and on the MSAC website next week.

Zoom links:  

Join Session 1 - 10:30 - 11:30 AM Meeting ID: 899 9583 6303 Passcode: 351448

Join Session 2 - 6:30- 8:30 PM Meeting ID: 856 7246 4805 Passcode: 749481

If you have any issues connecting to the Zoom or have questions about connecting to Zoom, contact Communications & Development Coordinator Matt Wilson at: mwilson@montpelier-vt.org. We hope you can attend in-person for this important conversation!

Here are some questions to consider in framing your thoughts:

• What services should the senior center be offering its members? 

• What benefits should MSAC be offering its members and supporting towns?

• What needs to be changed at MSAC? 

• What services should the senior center be offering its members? 

• What benefits should MSAC be offering its members and supporting towns?

• What needs to be changed at MSAC? (Offerings, communication, physical space, membership, and programming)

• What should be the top two priorities of the Senior Center?

Some other relevant commentary and news articles (in case you missed them) https://www.kevinkellis.com/commentary https://thevpo.org/2023/07/28/montpelier-is-on-the-edge-of-a-doom-loop/ https://thevpo.org/2023/08/01/one-minor-consequence-of-the-flood-a-dramatic-shortage-of-legal-representation-for-renters/ https://www.newsbreak.com/montpelier-vt/3060496734557-resilient-montpelier-a-banquet-of-consequences https://vtdigger.org/2023/08/03/seeking-shelter-vermonters-displaced-by-floods-find-housing-solutions-through-family-and-friends/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=VTDigger%20Subscribers%20and%20Donors&utm_campaign=94c0e7e7d0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_08_03_03_08&utm_term=0_-94c0e7e7d0-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D https://montpelierbridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/finalproof-Bridge_7-12-23.pdf https://mailchi.mp/sevendaysvt.com/from-the-publisher-best-of-montpelier?e=6c19fb5991 https://www.timesargus.com/news/local/council-calls-for-clarity-on-flood-regulations/article_c0440224-440c-561d-b384-915f6c4da5ee.html  If you have not yet opted-in to receive PEN in your email, please let us know at peterhkelman@yahoo.com that you wish to continue to receive it.  And, by all means feel free to pass on this and any other issue of PEN to others you think may be interested.

Montpelier PEN Update: Motel Program “Compromise” & Country Club Road Actionable Master Plan

 UPDATE: Motel Program "Compromise"

Since May 14, 2023, PEN has been sending links to articles regarding the beginning of the end of the motel program for thousands of Vermonters. See these PEN Issues:

Montpelier PEN Special Issue: The Homelessness Emergency 5/14/23

Montpelier Public Engagement Newsletter (PEN): Issue #14 The Homeless Emergency in Vermont & Country Club Road Site Project Next Steps 5/21/23 

Montpelier PEN Special Issue: Politicians to evict thousands of homeless Vermonters from motels beginning just days from now 5/28/23

Montpelier PEN UPDATE The eviction of thousands of homeless Vermonters from motels has begun 6/4/23

Montpelier PEN UPDATE (6/11/23): The eviction of thousands of homeless Vermonters from motels continues

Montpelier PEN Update: The Status of the Motel Program for Homeless Vermonters (6/19/23)

If you’ve been reading some or most of these articles, I feel sure you understand, as I have said repeatedly:

None of this needed to happen;  it was all foreseeable and avoidable, and yet the Democratic party legislative supermajority and the Republican governor who was overwhelmingly re-elected by Vermonters across the political spectrum in 2022 did nothing to prevent this from happening and are still doing almost nothing but blame each other.

Yes, they finally arrived at what some, like Montpelier Rep. Conor Casey are calling a compromise, but make no mistake, this agreement, which was worked out at the proverbial 11th hour “behind closed doors” by the Democratic Legislative leadership and the Governor’s staff is a cruel and unjust political deal to make them all look blameless.

First read the accounts in the mainstream Vermont media:

Lawmakers approve deal to extend motel shelter for some until the spring (VT Digger, 6/20/23)

Vermont legislature extends emergency housing, overrides state budget veto (Vermont Public, 6/20/23)

Confused? Now read these analytical pieces about what really happened and why.

The Voucher Deal: Better Than Nothing, Worse Than It Ought to Be (The Vermont Political Observer, 6/20/23) 

Vermont Democrats Spend a Pleasant Tuesday Slappin’ Around the Most Popular Governor in the Country (The Vermont Political Observer, 6/21/23) 

This Is Not Going Away (The Vermont Political Observer, 6/22/23)

And finally, read about Brenda Siegel, the person who worked tirelessly to prevent this tragedy and knows this is less than a compromise…. (1000+ people with low-incomeshave been exited from motels to the streets and will not be allowed back into the program and Vermonters who become homeless from here on out---as emergency rental assistance ends, Medicaid and SNAP benefits are cut  back, and no-cause evictions accelerate---will not be eligible for the motel program).... but more than nothing ( 2000 Vermonters, many with disabilities, families, in recovery, fleeing domestic violence, all too poor to afford skyrocketing rental prices or unable to find rental unit whose owners are willing to accept Section 8 vouchers)... who have been living in motels (some since the pandemic began) NOW will continue to be able to do so until next spring. 

Taking the Win by Kevin Ellis (www.kevinellis.com)

Country Club Road Site (CCRS) Project

At next Wednesday’s City Council meeting, the City’s consultants will present their 

Actionable Master Plan for the Country Club Road Site to the City Council

All are urged to attend and to listen carefully and with an open mind to the presentation, to questions and comments from the City Council, and to comments from the public. 

6/24/23 City Council Meeting 

6:30 PM City Council Chambers, City Hall 

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86895822381?pwd=bEhsS0wrektvQmJnYnZwWTZ1YmJ6UT09

Meeting ID: 868 9582 2381 Passcode: 898419 One tap mobile: (312)-626-6799

Montpelier PEN Update: The Status of the Motel Program for Homeless Vermonters (6/19/23)

On June 3 &12, I sent you links to articles regarding the beginning of the end of the motel program for thousands of Vermonters (see these below) and I wrote that these articles make clear that the abrupt and total end to this program didn’t need to happen, that it was foreseeable and avoidable, and yet the Democratic party legislative supermajority and the Republican governor who was overwhelmingly re-elected by Vermonters across the political spectrum in 2022 did nothing to prevent this from happening and are still doing nothing but blame each other.

Now the legislature is back for a brief so-called “veto" session” and it is being reported that there is some sort of “deal” in the making that might partially save the motel program. 

House and Senate are brokering a deal to extend the motel program (VTDigger, 6/15/23)

Housing/Homelessness advocates like Brenda Siegel say that what is being proposed is not enough. In a recent press  release, they explained:

In order to keep people safe, we must create a system that does not discriminate against those with disabilities, responds to the crisis we are in, and appropriately shelters people. 

This system must:  

• Include all who meet the Vermont definition of disability.

• Include any who are medically vulnerable.

• Include those who become newly homeless

• Open the General Assistance (GA) rules to meet 2023 needs instead of those of 1988.

• Require voluntary data collection, so that we know the harm we are causing when we unshelter people.

In short, needs must be met for all who are experiencing homelessness retroactively and continuously until there are non-congregate and permanent housing solutions in their place. 

Siegel, who was the Democratic Party candidate for Governor in 2022, goes on to say: 

This must include people who newly become homeless. Because people WILL become homeless, many with disabilities and children, and it is no less harmful to put them on the street than it is to send those currently in the program to live on the street. 

Meanwhile, Siegel and a small group of homelessness advocates are personally identifying and interviewing people who have been exited or are slated soon to be exited and are sending to appropriate officials at the Agency of Social Services  first-hand information and reasons why these individuals should be kept in the motel program. 

At the same time, cities and towns statewide continue to scramble to prepare for numbers of people who have already been exited from motels and the larger number expected to be exited by July 1 even if some sort of partial motel extension is funded by the legislature in the next week.

People facing homelessness check out housing resources, social services in Rutland  (VTDigger, 6/15/23)

And, finally, social service and housing organizations are exploring the possibility of leasing some motels to keep residents of them in it past the July 1 exit deadline and of having an option to buy these motels to, perhaps, convert them from temporary shelter to more permanent low-income housing.

Good Samaritan Haven and Downstreet are in Motel Market (VTDigger, 6/14/23)

This just in this AM: a consciousness-raising piece that fortuitously segues to the next PEN posting below: Can we repurpose state buildings to house the homeless? (VTDigger, 6/19/23)

Breaking the Wall: My Personal Quest to Provide Affordable Housing in Montpelier

In the May 28 Special Issue of PEN, I announced that PEN would go on hiatus. I wrote:  

As for me, the events of the last month in Vermont and around the country have left me disheartened. As a result and because I will turn 80 on June 5, I am going to take a break from publishing PEN. I want to spend the next few months (maybe more) literally and figuratively “tending my own garden” rather than trying to fix “a world” that doesn’t seem to be fixable even at the local level.

I subsequently received a number of understanding emails, thanking me for my efforts and wishing me well. I told these folks that caring and appreciative notes like theirs are what “keeps me going" and I assured them that I was not "giving up the fight,” but rather shifting my energies to efforts I thought I could more easily control rather than “beating my head against a wall."

Habitat for Humanity Project

I actually shared with our Mountainview neighborhood the news about the first of these more modest (I thought, naively) efforts in mid April, letting them know that my wife (Therese Mageau) and I were planning to subdivide our Mountain View St. property and donate two 9000 sq. ft.  lots to Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity (CVHFH). 

Then, over the past two months, I have been collaborating with CVHFH to come up with a viable plan to accomplish the goal of subdividing and making the necessary infrastructure investments to make it possible for Habitat to build a two-family duplex an each of these two lots, 4 dwelling units in all. This has required a good bit of communication with the City Zoning Administrator, the Department of Public Works, neighborhood members, and others, all of which has been both exciting and, frankly, quite frustrating. 

This Monday (6/19/23), we will have our first regulatory public meeting, a Subdivision Sketch Review with the Development Review Board (DRB). I would encourage those interested to attend (by Zoom if you wish) to observe the complexity of the regulations that must be addressed and the challenges of what is required for individual property owners like us to carry out even a fairly straight-forward subdivision of a relatively small piece of unused, unmaintained, nearly flat land with poor growing soil in order to enable an internationally successful organization like Habitat to create much needed affordable housing in our city.

Here’s is a link to the DRB meeting Agenda Packet, where you can find: our Sketch Review application, the Staff Report on it, several letters from neighbors voicing objections to the application, and a Zoom link to attend the meeting remotely. 

The Possible Purchase of an Unoccupied State-owned Building and Converting it to Workforce Affordable Housing 

This morning I came across an article in this past Friday’s Times-Argus, entitled "Housing and the unhoused a cause for concern in Montpelier" Times-Argus, 6/15/23, which prominently features Bill Fraser’s remarks about the state’s odd lack of action regarding needed parking if the state actually wants to sell one of their unused buildings to “someone" who hopes to convert it into housing units. (Disclosure: That “someone” is me.)

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The manager [City Manager Bill Fraser] shared a head-scratching story involving a state-owned property on Baldwin Street — one, he said, a private developer would like to convert into housing if there were only enough parking. [Bill actually said “a person” not a private developer].

There’s the rub, according to Fraser, who said there is plenty of parking — all of it owned by the state — but none of it apparently is available to someone interested in advancing a seemingly sensible project. 

“The state is trying to sell (property) to create housing units that don’t exist during a housing crisis and the state won’t let them use state parking to develop the housing,” he said. “It’s kind of like: ‘What’s going on here?’ Are we in a housing crisis or aren’t we?” 

In fact, our hope to convert this building (advertised as "ideal for residential conversion. Motivated Seller) to workforce-affordable housing is much more complicated and perplexing than Bill Fraser revealed. Stay tuned for news on this project. 

Montpelier PEN UPDATE (6/11/23): The eviction of thousands of homeless Vermonters from motels continues

 

Last weekend (June 3&4) I sent you all articles written as of June 4 about about the end of the motel program for thousands of Vermonters (see Montpelier PEN Update 6/4/23) and I wrote: 

Please understand that this didn’t have to happen and that no one’s hands are clean. We are all to blame for this tragic situation.

Below are articles written since June 3 that make it even more abundantly clear that this didn’t need to happen, that it was foreseeable and avoidable, and yet the Democratic party legislative supermajority and the Republican governor who was overwhelmingly re-elected by Vermonters across the political spectrum in 2022 did nothing to prevent this from happening and are still doing nothing but blame each other.

Blunt Force Triage, (The Vermont Political Observer, 6/12/23)

Lt. Gov. Zuckerman: Housing the unhoused poses a moral dilemma  (VTDigger, 6/11/23)

https://vtdigger.org/2023/06/11/lt-gov-zuckerman-housing-the-unhoused-poses-a-moral-dilemma/

That $12.5 Million is Going to Vanish Like an Ice Cube on the Face of the Sun (The Vermont Political Observer, 6/9/23)

The PIT Report Casts a Harsh Light on Our Political Betters (The Vermont Political Observer, 6/8/23)

As pandemic era motel programs end, tenants struggle to claim their deposits (VTDigger, 6/8/23)

This year’s count finds homelessness has climbed nearly 19% in Vermont (VTDigger, 6/7/23)

It is We Who Are: Montpelier Congregations of Faith (the bridge, 6/7/23)

Building an Emergency Shelter Community to Address Homelessness (6/7/23 ORCA video presentation) and an article about this presentation: Learning from Burlington: Could Pods Serve Montpelier’s Unhoused Residents? (the bridge, 6/23)

Council [Barre] mostly quiet on ‘camping’ waits for word on shelter (Times-Argus, 6/7/23)

What Vermont can learn from its forgotten motel voucher crisis of 2013 (VTDigger, 6/7/23)

Motel Exodus Begins (the bridge, 6/6/23)

Vermont’s Annual 2023 Point in Time Count of Those Experiencing Homelessness (Chittenden County Homeless Alliance and the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness, 6/6/23)

Burlington asks state to fund new emergency shelter, motel stays  (VTDigger, 6/5/23)

Montpelier PEN UPDATE 6/4/23: The eviction of thousands of homeless Vermonters from motels has begun

Although PEN is indeed on hiatus, it is impossible for me not to update readers on the shameless events that are now taking place. Read it and weep. 

Please understand that this didn’t have to happen and that no one’s hands are clean. We are all to blame for this tragic situation.

Nor is it clear how it will end. As far as I can tell, this is now a food fight among the Governor, the legislative “leadership” in both houses, various factions within both houses of the legislature, various heads of state departments and staff of those departments, various regional social service and housing agencies who are always vying for funds, municipal government leaders, the motel owners, and groups (e.g., religious community) and individual members of the public ranging from those who are planning how to help people who will be exited all the way to those to want to see civil disobedience activities at the motels and/or the statehouse.

Everyone wants to blame everyone else and, as usual, the poor and unrepresented are the pawns.

As you read articles written over the past couple of months about this situation, please notice how media accounts and those who are quoted in those accounts make statements that later turn out to be questionable, at best. Food for thought.

The May 28 issue of PEN provided links to articles written up to that day about how the then-upcoming eviction of thousands of homeless Vermonters had evolved. First, though, immediately below, in chronological order,  are some of the latest confusing and confused news accounts published since that 5/28/23issue of PEN. 

Scott veto state budget; lawmakers condemn action, call for unity (Times-Argus, 

5/29)

Now Comes Legal Aid (The Vermont Political Observer, 5/30/23)

Barre puts $29,000 a day price for housing shelter at BOR (Times-Argus, 

5/30/23)

Smaller Vermont Towns Watching Homeless Situation (Times-Argus, 5/31/23)

Council welcomes motel reprieve, questions how to handle homeless (Times-Argus, 5/31/23)

Vermont Legal Aid sues state to halt evictions from motel program (VTDigger, 5/31/23)

Judge denies effort to delay evictions from motel program (VTDigger, 6/1/23)

Evictions are set to begin for people in Vermont’s motel housing program (Vermont Public, 6/1/23) 

Vermonters Leave Hotels as Judge Refuses to Block Evictions  (Seven Days, 6/1/23)

After last ditch legal effort fails, hundreds of unhoused vermonters are evicted from motel program (VTDigger, 6/1/23)

Day One: Not as Immediately Disastrous as Feared, but Needlessly Chaotic and Destructive.  (The Vermont Political Observer, 6/1/23)

It’s Impossible, Except that it’s Not (The Vermont Political Observer, 6/2/23)

"This is really happening" Tweet from Brenda Siegel, 6/2/23

With Every Passing Day, Vermont’s Disgrace Gets Worse  (The Vermont Political Observer, 6/3/23)