Encampment closure sparks protest on Montpelier City Hall steps

MONTPELIER — Derek Malbroux has a question for residents of Vemont’s capital city: “If you were suddenly homeless, how would you want to be treated?”

He wrote the message in neon chalk in front of City Hall on Aug. 14, six days after he began a protest there.

Malbroux, 28, said he started the protest to get the attention of local government officials who closed an encampment at the top of Country Club Road last week where Malbroux and roughly a dozen other people had been living.

“I’m sick of being promised safe places to live, then getting evicted,” he said. “So I’m willing to do this as long as I have to, until we get some type of answer.”

Malbroux said his primary demands are to find out where he, and other unhoused people, can camp safely for the summer and to be treated with respect.

According to the Montpelier Police Department’s encampment response policy , city staff “shall take a general non-involvement approach to any found emergency sleeping camp sites, with the particular lens of not criminalizing people creating shelter due to a lack of housing.” Staff will only intervene in “high-sensitivity areas” — defined as “locations where the health and safety impacts of encampments have a heightened potential to degrade public safety, public health, environmental protection, or critical infrastructure” — according to the policy.

An estimated 12 to 15 people were camping at the former country club site when Montpelier city officials declared it a “high sensitivity area” on Aug. 7 and put barricades around the parking lot.

In an interview, Montpelier Mayor Jack McCullough said the site was closed “to protect public safety and and protect the safety of everyone who’s on the land, you know, from risk of some kind of confrontation.”

McCullough said the city has issued no official communication about where people who had been camping at the site should go.

A seasonal shelter run by Good Samaritan, also located at the former country club lot, is closed for the summer and will not reopen until October. The city doesn’t have the money or staff to open a temporary shelter or secure an area as an encampment, McCullough said.

“If we had unlimited resources and if we could do more, we would,” he said. “I know that’s not a satisfactory answer for someone whose needs are immediate.”

Malbroux said he was living at the Good Samaritan shelter from February until May. But when the shelter closed for the summer — and with other local shelters at capacity — he had no choice but to begin camping outside.

When he was evicted last week, he said he “knew words could only go so far” and decided to begin a hunger strike on Aug. 8.

He fasted for four days until the protest was interrupted Monday afternoon — when Malbroux was arrested by Montpelier police on a warrant for two unrelated alleged misdemeanors that occurred on May 7 and June 16, according to the arrest warrant provided by the Montpelier Police Department.

Malbroux was bailed out of jail Monday and appeared in court on Tuesday, according to an arrest report. He told VTDigger on Wednesday that he was not charged and was instead offered a diversion program in which he has to write an apology letter to individuals involved in the situations.

When asked if the arrest changed his mindset, Malbroux said, “Hell no. After court, I came right back here. Our work isn’t done here.”

By Wednesday, Malbroux and other local leaders had coordinated a group of about 25 community members to attend the Montpelier City Council meeting and share their concerns with city officials.

Valerie Coolidge, 48, said she joined the meeting to “help people see the reality” of homelessness. About seven years ago, Coolidge and her four children — ranging in age from 4 to 17 at the time — found themselves unhoused after Coolidge escaped an abusive relationship.

They lived in a tent and in Coolidge’s car as she attempted to navigate Montpelier’s “scattered resources,” she said. While she now has safe, stable housing, she said she is still haunted by the “feeling that no one cares.”

“When you’re homeless, there’s a layer of invisibility. You’re not seen anymore,” she said. “So you have to claw your way out yourself.”

McCullough said he was thankful for the opportunity to hear everyone’s point of view at the meeting. “But I don’t think that people’s minds were necessarily changed,” he said, adding that council members have a limited budget to work with and will continue to prioritize public safety.

“The resources of the city of Montpelier are never going to be enough to end homelessness in Montpelier,” he said. “We’re really looking to state government in particular to help provide the resources that are needed.”

Meanwhile, Malbroux plans to continue his strike. He said he’s being supported by a few other strikers who are taking turns fasting. “If anyone feels fatigued, they can tag in someone else in,” he said. “We want people to stay safe.”

For Montpelier’s unhoused community, he said, looking out for each other is nothing new.

“We’re a community of strangers, but we’re here for each other,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Encampment closure sparks protest on Montpelier City Hall steps .