No Vermonter Should Have to Live Outside

It has been cold outside lately, hasn’t it? Imagine being one of the 3,500 Vermonters who do not have a place to call home. Without legislative action, almost 600 adults and 160 children in Vermont will lose shelter by April 1st.

ACT NOW by contacting the governor and our legislators. Tell them to pass a Budget Adjustment Action to extend shelter for some of Vermont’s most vulnerable. Also, tell them that Vermont needs a clear plan to end unsheltered homeless in Vermont. Vermont’s ACLU provides clear, actionable information on the current situation and a way to contact your senators. Our Addison County representative to the Vermont Interfaith Action network, Tom testified to the Vermont House in support of a similar House’s draft Budget Adjustment Action to extend shelter for some of our state’s most vulnerable. Here is some more excellent background on potential legislative action supported by our partner, the Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont (HHAV).

We Unitarian Universalists are a sanctuary people. What we actually do collectively sometimes can be matters of life and death right here in our community of communities. Timothy Edwards Sr. died homeless right here in Middlebury on February 8th. Some of you may have seen Tim, or “Pappy” to those of us who knew him. Pappy lived in the encampment behind Ilsley Library until the city removed the tent area in December. Tim is at least the fifth unhoused person to have died unnecessarily in our area in the past two years. Lori St. Amour, Stephen Parsons, Mike Winters, and Chad Alspaugh are the other beloveds who died tragically and completely unnecessarily. Each of these people was an inherently worthy being deserving of care, equity, justice, and more than what the status quo delivered for them.

Chronic homelessness is a complex and difficult reality. It is also an entirely solvable challenge if enough of us center the needs of the marginalized, create new connections and relationships with those in need, and demand that the needs of the disenfranchised no longer be subordinated to the needs of the privileged. Please join us.