Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! The Vermont State Police found two people dead inside a tent in Wolcott on Thanksgiving Eve. They were Lucas Menard of Montpelier and Tammy Menard of Berlin. Few details are available, although police do not suspect foul play.
Unless, of course, you consider this fall’s mass unsheltering “foul play.”
And yes, the Menards were among the close to 1,500 vulnerable Vermonters recently unsheltered following cuts in the GA emergency housing program. Brenda Siegel of End Homelessness Vermont says they were clients of her organization who had “complex medical needs” but were denied shelter by the state. Siegel on Facebook:
Wonderful vibrant people. And Tammy herself helped so many others. Tell me again how what we did was fine and people will manage. Is this what you mean by “manage”?
I can’t add much to that, except to remind everyone that this was the inevitable and long-predicted result of denying shelter to so many of our most vulnerable. And the cold weather is just beginning. Siegel gets the last word:
I wanted nothing more than to be wrong about the catastrophic outcomes this policy would cause. But I knew that I was not.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
no, no, no! I remember what gave VT a heart, a man froze to death in a doorway in Burl. Poor people, poor people
BLANKING A I never wanted to read something like that again
The US, including Vermont, under the GOP governor’s “rule”leadership,” is heading straight into Dickensian brutality – or worse.
Governor wanted the low income to no income homeless people to die that’s apparent cause he does nothing to fix the situation over four years long plus he’s been arguing to not help homeless.
Denied shelter because their medical needs did not fit the criteria to qualify them for the revamped motel program.
They had a little dog they had just been to the vets to get care for …. they were caring people with health problems, in difficult circumstances…… trying to make a home in a tent while winter came in with cold and a snowstorm . Can’t we do better in Vermont ?