WCAX-TV Channel 3 aired a story last week about the challenges Vermont's homeless encounter when seeking help.
Homelessness
Comment on the Governor's Housing the Homeless Summit
As a follow-up to Gov. Shumlin's June 7 "Housing the Homeless Summit," the Agency of Human Services is seeking your comments.
The Agency has created a Web site to accept your comments about the summit and the topics covered.
You'll also find a number of proposals presented at the summit available for download as PDFs.
Homelessness on Channel 3
Earlier this month, Vermonters gathered at the Governor's Housing the Homeless summit in Montpelier to discuss the problem of homelessness in Vermont. ("Homelessness summit draws crowd")
Vermont Deputy Secretary of Human Services Patrick Flood attended the summit and appeared on WCAX-TV Channel 3's "The :30" yesterday to talk about it.
HUD: Chronic homelessness down, family homelessness up
The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) this week released its "2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress."
Despite a troubled economy, the report shows homelessness up less than 1 percent from 2009 to 2010 — from 404,957 to 407,966. According to the report, more than 1.59 million people spent at least one night in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program during 2010. That's a 2.2 percent increase from the previous year.
Homelessness summit in Times Argus
This past Tuesday's Governor's Summit on Housing the Homeless was written up in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus.
Read the article online (subscription required).
Like the other press we've seen about the event ("Homelessness summit draws crowd"), the Argus focuses on advocates' call for prevention of homelessness through assistance with delinquent mortgage payments and rent.
Homelessness summit draws crowd
About 140 people from across the state gathered in Montpelier for Gov. Peter Shumlin's Housing the Homeless summit yesterday.
Advocates said the state's focus should be on preventing homelessness and avoiding emergencies.
Read more about the event:
VPR interviews homelessness advocate
Vermont Public Radio aired a 10-minute interview with homelessness advocate Morgan Brown.
Morgan blogs about policy and politics that affect homeless people, and has sometimes found himself among their ranks.
Homelessness proposal preview
Our friends at the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition (VAHC) have posted six proposals that will be presented at the June 7 Governor's Summit on Housing the Homeless:
Gov. Shumlin convenes homelessness summit
Gov. Peter Shumlin has called for a Governor’s Summit on Housing the Homeless to be held June 7 at the Statehouse in Montpelier.
A focus on people who're homeless has been a priority for Shumlin and his Agency of Human Services since he took office. The Governor's convened this opportunity for housing providers to hear and respond to specific proposals a collaborative group of stakeholders will present based on models of how to successfully house people who are homeless.
We hope housing communities from all parts of the state will be represented at this meeting so solutions the State adopts will work well for all properties and tenants.
COTS Walk coming Sunday
Burlington's Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS) is holding its annual COTS Walk fundraiser Sunday.
About 1,500 people are expected to take the three-mile trek to raise money and help draw attention to the needs of the homeless. The route follows the path a homeless person might travel to receive shelter and services in the Queen City.