Joyce Marcel
Housing, drug crises spill into downtown Brattleboro
Sometimes it feels like Brattleboro is under siege, but it's a siege that is hard to define.
Is it drug addiction? Is it homelessness? Is it panhandling? Is it theft? Is it a mental health issue? Is it all of the above? Just one or two of the above?...
A very untranquil summer for Becca Balint
Despite crises in Vermont and Washington — and amid an environment that is ‘off the rails’ and ‘beyond the pale’ — the first-year U.S. representative continues to be hopeful
Most people don't get six weeks of summer vacation, but as a member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vermont, does. Unfortunately for Balint, of Brattleboro, her time away from the Capitol coincided with a major natural disaster in Vermont, four big indictments in four major cities for former...
State tries to find money to expand new housing
Vermont agencies explore new ideas to address lack of housing stock and a crisis in homelessness
As unhoused people - some nursing children, some nursing pets - camp in tents during this rainy summer, they are deluged by more than water. There is a sense of hopelessness, because even with the best of intentions - and with the Vermont Treasurer's Office making $85 million available...
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‘We need more housing that’s more affordable for people who need it’
Why are millions of people living on the streets of the wealthiest nation on Earth? That is the question that Gregg Colburn, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, along with data scientist and policy analyst Clayton Page Aldern, tried to discover in their book, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns, published in March by the University of California Press. Colburn was the guest at an online policy forum held by State Treasurer Michael...
Preserving a visual legacy
There was a time in this old state when yoked oxen hauled logs out of frozen woods, people flocked to county fairs for fun, for relaxation, and to see their neighbors, farriers shoed draft horses which then competed in strength contests, wooden barns and church steeples dotted the landscape, and covered bridges hung tenuously over rushing streams. For the most part, if you look hard enough, this is still Vermont. But nothing has captured the old-timey feel of Vermont more...
For homeless people, a human connection
Brooks Memorial Library is on the front line of the town's and region's homelessness conundrum. With the exception of Groundworks Collaborative, the library is the one place in town where people who are unhoused can find shelter from the weather, have access to the internet, write a letter to a family member, get help finding the services they need, get a few books to take out, use a clean bathroom, drink some cool, clean water, and find a kind word...
Democrats return to Montpelier to override five vetoes
In what has been described by many as “a lightning round,” state legislators returned to Montpelier on June 20 to override five gubernatorial vetos in one day, including the all-important state budget, which must go into effect on July 1. The legislators' recall session had been expected to last three or even five days. “The veto session was very efficient,” said Sen. Wendy Harrison, D-Windham. “We were advised to be prepared to be there for three days the first week...
County legislators see priorities become state law
The Legislature returns to Montpelier this week to see if it can override Gov. Phil Scott's veto of the budget and take care of a few other pressing concerns. Meanwhile, two of Windham County's legislative leaders are celebrating remarkable victories. In her first year as chair of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Sara Coffey, D-Guilford, managed to create, negotiate, and pass, in conjunction with the Senate, the $850 million Transportation Bill that the governor signed into law on June 12.