Calendar of Upcoming Civic Engagement Opportunities
March 21 Park’s Commission Meeting
6:00 PM Location: Council Chambers and Zoom
Agenda Topics include: Dogs in Hubbard Park & Bikes in Hubbard Park
March 22 Restroom Committee Meeting
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Location: City Manager’s Conference Room and Zoom
Join Zoom invitation link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82958473252?pwd=OTE0T1lMeDU0QWJ4THVLOVVzRFlzdz09 Meeting ID: 829 5847 3252 Passcode: 319317 One tap mobile: (309)-205-3325
To learn what ideas this new committee has discussed about downtown public toilets : see minutes of its first meeting (2/1) and its most recent meeting (2/22)
March 22 City Council Meeting
6:30 PM City Hall, City Council Chambers and via Zoom
Join Zoom invitation link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82048636899?pwd=WUdNbTZ0QVFSeDV1TjJOb09NOGhldz09
Meeting ID: 820 4863 6899 Passcode: 411837 One tap mobile: (312)-626-6799
The agenda for this City Council meeting is jam-packed with important issues and reports; see link to Agenda Items and Files. Note especially the Country Club Road Site Winter Stage Close Out and Spring Stage Launch and the Homelessness Needs Assessment and Action Plan Report and see A Brief History of Homelessness in Montpelier, below.
A Brief History of Homelessness in Montpelier (2012-2023)
As most of us know, homelessness in urban areas has been a national phenomenon for many years, but over the last decade or so and particularly since the COVID pandemic, the numbers of people experiencing homelessness nationally has increased enormously and spread very visibly to suburbs and rural areas (like Montpelier and the surrounding towns) where the cost of living, particularly housing, medical care and food, has risen far more than living wages.
At least a decade ago, various Vermont state agencies and NGOs were noting a significant increase in homelessness in our state, and in 2013, then-Governor Shumlin signed a bill authorizing a five year Vermont Plan to End Homelessness. Unfortunately, most of the recommendations in that plan and in subsequent plans were never launched or, if they were, the funding for them was woefully inadequate.
Meanwhile, by 2015 the most visible signs of increasing homelessness were beginning to be recognized in some of Vermont’s larger municipalities (e.g., Burlington, Brattleboro, and Rutland) and here in Montpelier a small number of concerned citizens, especially in the faith community, had begun to notice an increase in demand at the Food Pantry and to be aware that even in winter there were a number of people living outside (mostly in the woods, but also in nooks and crannies around town). In response to this latter situation, in 2017, Good Samaritan Haven established a state-funded 20-bed City winter emergency overnight shelter at Bethany Church.
By August 2019 growing awareness of the plight of people in Montpelier experiencing homelessness led to the City Council creating the Montpelier Homelessness Task Force (MHTF), which was charged by the City Council to provide a report that would include:
- Creative, collaboratively developed short-term ideas and/or solutions to improve conditions for people experiencing homelessness
- Policy recommendations and concrete ideas for longer-term structural and systems improvement that the City could implement, along with a preliminary budget and timeline for duration of work and implementation
Ideas and recommendations should be supported by data that includes:
- Information regarding the scope of homelessness in Montpelier and the needs of people experiencing homelessness in Montpelier
- The systems currently in place in our region to address homelessness
- The range of concerns, perceived barriers, and potential solutions identified by the community
Existing strategies in other cities or states, recognizing that the location of our city requires solutions that are responsive to our changing seasons
Meeting diligently once a week for the next three months with a good deal of time spent in between by members and city staff, the MHTF was able to deliver a preliminary report to the Council 11/20/19.
Then, in early spring 2020 COVID struck and nearly every factor that contributes to homelessness--- lack of affordable housing, poverty, cost and availability of medical care, food insecurity, mental illness, opioid epidemic and more--- was greatly exacerbated nationally, in the state, and in Montpelier.
Most of the members of the HTF at that time were professionally involved with service delivery to people experiencing homelessness and related issues. As a result, over the next 3 years most of the time and energy of the MHTF were taken up with addressing immediate (very short-term) needs and challenges: winter overnight shelter, lockers for storage of belongings, daytime warming spaces, lack of 24/7 downtown public toilet facilities, issues around camping in public parks, complaints from business owners about aggressive panhandling, the on-again-off-again state General Services motel voucher program, a variety of individual emergencies and even deaths, and finally the explosive controversy around the Guertin structure, ending with its May 2022 removal to the “stump dump.”
By late 2021, it was clear to all---members of the MHTF, City staff, the City Council, members of the business community and many City residents--- that Montpelier was in the midst of “a perfect storm” related to homelessness and that the MHTF by itself lacked the capacity to deliver comprehensive, actionable short and longer term recommendations to the City about how to address this growing emergency.
As a result, the City Council, allocated roughly $25,000 in the FY 2022 budget for two reports to be done, the first of which (sometimes referred to as “the root causes” study) was to involve extensive interviews with people experiencing housing insecurity in our area and was intended to “foster greater understanding of the root causes of homelessness in our area and to help the Washington County Continuum of Care’s ongoing strategic planning into an actionable, fundable plan with concrete projects to address concrete needs.” This research was carried out in early winter 2022 and the report completed in May 2022 with the title: Washington County Continuum of Care Homelessness Research Project. (Anyone wishing to have this extensive report may request it from peterhkelman@yahoo.com.)
The second report, as described in the RFP from the City Manager’s office was to build on the information of the root causes study and to “outline the unique circumstances of those living unhoused in Montpelier, programs and services that could be helpful in town for those living unhoused, and recommendations for needed programmatic and/or physical infrastructure to support those services.” This is the the Homelessness Needs Assessment and Action Plan Report (aka the Parker Advisor’s Report) that will be presented to the City Council at their 3/22/23 meeting.
Anyone concerned about the homelessness situation in our area is encouraged to attend this Wednesday’s (3/22/23) City Council meeting to hear the presentation of the Homelessness Needs Assessment and Action Report and, if so moved, to ask questions and/or make comments about the recommendations in it.
If you are unfamiliar with City Council procedures for public comment, see below: PEN Tips: How to participate in Meetings of the Montpelier City Council and City Committees
PEN Tips: How to participate in Meetings of the Montpelier City Council and City Committees
Consistent with the State of Vermont Open Meeting Law, members of the public in Montpelier are afforded basically two kinds of opportunity to speak at any and all such meetings:
- During an Agenda item (often called “General Business and Appearances”) that usually occurs near the start of the meeting and is often used by members of the public to speak about matters that are not otherwise on the agenda for that meeting.
- During discussion of a matter that is on the agenda
The way both of these opportunities are generally managed in Montpelier is that members of the public who wish to speak on either of these occasions, must raise their hands (in person or via Zoom), be recognized by the chair, and make their comments completely and concisely; i.e. If they have more than one question or comment to make, they are supposed to do so at that time; they generally will not be allowed follow-up questions or comments even under the rare circumstances that they get a response from the chair or other member of the body.
This is how “public participation” is managed in Montpelier “open meetings,” so prepare yourself. We recommend that ahead of the meeting, you write out your comments, time yourself reading them at an understandable rate, and edit them so you get it down to roughly two minutes. If you feel that what you have to say simply cannot be handled in that time frame, you should consider presenting a brief oral version of your statement at the meeting and emailing your full statement ahead of time to the appropriate committee staff to include in the agenda packet for members to read before the meeting and/or bring printed copies to be distributed at the meeting. Anyone choosing to go this route is free to email us for some further coaching on how to meet agenda packet deadlines.
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