For people in Montpelier who have housing, days of rain and wet weather may have canceled hiking plans or ruined outdoor concerts.
For people experiencing homelessness, forced to camp outdoors full-time, the wet weather threatened to turn their life’s belongings into “mush,” several said at a meeting of the city government’s homelessless task force.
“You’ve got a lot of people out there who don’t have adequate shelter to even store their belongings,” said a woman living outside who identified herself only as Susan. “And so when they do acquire things, they get ruined when the elements hit. I’ve already given away clothes [and] sleeping bags to people who were in even more need than I was.”
The task force met Wednesday, hours before a city council meeting to discuss Montpelier’s proposed emergency camping policy.
The policy, prepared by Assistant City Manager Cameron Niedermayer, aims to decriminalize emergency camping on city-owned land and give clear directions to city staff members on how to navigate interactions with campers.
The policy comes amid concerns about the state’s housing crisis, driven by a shortage of affordable housing and the eviction of hundreds of people from motels statewide. In Montpelier, service workers estimate an additional 20 people on top of the city’s usual 50 people could be camping right now or in the near future.
Niedermayer said a recent court case in the 9th District Circuit, whose jurisdiction extends from Alaska south to Arizona, suggests that the city government has a legal responsibility to allow camping when there isn’t enough shelter available. And the local shelter, Good Samaritan Haven, doesn’t have enough beds.
“To be very frank, there are folks camping now in our public parks, and there will continue to be folks camping, because there’s a lack of better or other options,” she said.
City Councilor Conor Casey said he’s been alarmed by comments on Front Porch Forum generalizing the population of homeless people in advance of the meeting.
“When we say ‘them,’ in many cases, it’s us,” he said. “I was talking to a fellow … and I asked him about himself, ‘where do you come from,’ and he said, ‘I went to Montpelier High School. I grew up here. … I’ve been through the mill, I’ve had a tough time but … this is my community. This is my home.’”
But though some Front Porch Forum commenters argued against camping in Hubbard Park and other places, no one actually at the meeting appeared to disagree with the underlying concept of allowing emergency camping on public land.
Instead, several members of the public said the policy was not enough, and asked for additional resources and facilities to support people forced to live outdoors.
Jamie Swan, who said he’s been homeless since 15, said the city should have a designated area. “They’re in fear of getting in trouble. So they go everywhere and scattered everywhere. Personally, they make a big mess,” he said.
Stephen Whitaker, a local resident, said the city should keep campers close to town and provide public facilities for them, including basic “huts” they could live in.
Niedermayer has said previously that the city’s requests for state funding for designated camping areas was rejected. Several people at the meeting said they hope Montpelier will keep fighting for state assistance.
After several hours of discussion, the council decided to delay a vote on the policy until the city parks commission has had a chance to fully weigh in on where people would be allowed to camp.
The council is taking tentative steps on one frequently mentioned issue: The lack of public restrooms. Councilors appointed members of a newly formed Public Restroom Committee.
Dawn Little, the city’s homeless outreach worker, told VTDigger after the meeting there is only one 24-hour public restroom in town — at Cumberland Farms — and “you may have to walk across town” to get to it.
But that was just one example of the “incredible time and stamina” needed to meet basic needs when living outside, she said. “People who are housed really underestimate that. It’s true about any of these little unconscious needs that we meet every day without really thinking about it.”
“In addition to, ‘Oh, I have an appointment at 1 o’clock,’ well, you may not have a phone, you may not know what time it is … you may miss the bus, but you also in between those things … they have all these other things like getting food, getting to the bathroom, getting warm,” Little said.
People with chronic illnesses face an even tougher challenge meeting their basic needs, she said. At the meeting, she pointed out that the lack of public transportation near public land means that people camping who have disabilities are often forced to walk long distances.
In response to concerns about a rise in homelessness, state officials have implemented several programs — emergency stipends, rental assistance, an extended motel voucher system — to help keep people from falling through the gaps.
But Little said people often struggle to navigate services — they may not qualify for programs, or don’t hear about them, or can’t apply to them without help, or can’t use the help once they get it.
She said she knows people who have had Section 8 vouchers, which provide rental assistance for low-income housing, for a year but can’t find someone to accept the voucher.
“There’s a huge number of things that traditionally we haven’t funded for people and, while they wait for that help to arrive, even if they’ve jumped through all the hoops, it may take a while,” she said. “It’s not like if you just reach out your hand, we can house you immediately and you can get a job and everything will be fine. It’s just not that simple.”
Another Way
On Wednesday afternoon at Another Way, a local community center for psychiatric survivors and people experiencing homelessness, several people chatted on plastic-covered couches and smoked cigarettes on the porch outside despite the drizzly weather.
The center, located at 125 Barre St., has signs for its weekly programs — a woodworking shop, yoga, accu-wellness — and a large garden growing apples out back.
One worker named Pat shared some of the frustrations she’s noticed with seeking help.
She asked not to share her last name because her stalker ex-husband was the reason she and her son were driven into homelessness. She has traveled from state to state, looking for a job and a place to live.
After picking Montpelier from a “dartboard,” a domestic violence shelter provided them with permanent housing. Her son is now a college graduate.
Now she works with others at Another Way to give back to the community. She said some minor issues are often a barrier to people seeking care, such as not having an ID or not living in Vermont for long enough.
She said one of the reasons it’s so hard to get out of homelessness is that “you are so beaten down for so long.”
“If I were a homeless person … my first thing I would want to do is explain to you, ‘I didn’t grow up like this. I didn’t wake up and want to be homeless. I was actually a member of my community. I was engaged, I was involved,’” she said.
Ken Russell, executive director of Another Way, said there’s a lot to be learned if the general public would just listen to the stories of people experiencing homelessness.
“If you get caricatured as homeless, oftentimes you’re treated as something less than human,” he said. “A lot of people just walk on by. There can be uncomfortable aspects of human nature that you encounter, because people are under stress, but sometimes those are the noisy ones.
“I’m blown away, again and again, at the humanity of folks; how loving and caring people are of each other in these communities of care. It’s beautiful.”