The Homelessness Task Force typically meets every other Wednesday at 11:30 AM in the City Council Chambers of City Hall and on Zoom.

The Montpelier City Council created a Homelessness Task Force in August of 2019 as a response to growing concern for our neighbors experiencing homelessness.

The Montpelier Homelessness Task Force is charged with providing the City Council with a report in three months that includes:

• Creative, collaboratively developed short-term ideas and/or solutions to improve conditions for people experiencing homelessness
• Policy recommendations and concrete ideas for longer-term structural and systems improvement that the City could implement, along with a preliminary budget and timeline for duration of work and implementation

Ideas and recommendations should be supported by data that includes:

• Information regarding the scope of homelessness in Montpelier and the needs of people experiencing homelessness in Montpelier
• The systems currently in place in our region to address homelessness
• The range of concerns, perceived barriers, and potential solutions identified by the community
• Existing strategies in other cities or states, recognizing that the location of our city requires solutions that are responsive to our changing seasons

Members

• Staff Rep:  Cameron Niedermayer
• Council Rep: Dona Bate & Conor Casey
• Ken Russell, Chair
• Rick DeAngelis
• Carolyn J. Ridpath 
• Will Eberle
• Zack Hughes
• Ericka Reil
• Dawn Little
• Diane Mathews

City of Montpelier Encampment Response Policy

The September 22, 2021 Council Approved Encampment Response Policy is available to read here.

Policy Summary: The City of Montpelier and its 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 intervene and ask encampments to relocate if they are found in “high-sensitivity areas” meeting specific environmental, health, and safety criteria as outlined in this policy. Staff shall offer to connect people sleeping in “high-sensitivity areas” to any available overnight shelters (a public or private shelter, with an available overnight space, for an individual experiencing homelessness, at no charge).