MIDDLEBURY — Steven Parsons had spent his life battling demons.

Drugs.

Mental health problems.

Isolation.

He came to Middlebury from the Northeast Kingdom area, looking for a life preserver and a way out.

After failing to live by the rules at the Charter House Emergency Shelter, Parsons took to the streets, becoming part of the small settlement of houseless folks who camp and congregate off Bakery Lane and behind the Ilsley Library.

On June 17, Parsons found his way out.

He picked a tree along the periphery of the Marble Works and, tragically, hanged himself from it using a webbing strap.

He left no note, nor had he confided in others his thoughts of self-harm.

Tyler Proulx, an outreach worker and recovery coach with the Turning Point Center of Addison County, said Parsons’s suicide has had a profound impact on the houseless community.

TYLER PROULX, SHOWN with some houseless people’s stuff stored under the Cross Street Bridge, is an outreach worker and recovery coach with the Turning Point Center of Addison County. He spends a lot of time networking with Middlebury’s houseless population and shared his thoughts on the current status of the houseless community and how it has reacted to the recent suicide death of one of its own.
Independent photo/John Flowers

“It was really dark,” Proulx said of the impact. “People feel it when they lose somebody; there are always ripple effects from a loss like that. They’re a pretty tight-knit community and it brought the mood down for a long while there.”

Proulx is one of several local human services workers who regularly check on the houseless community, offering them access to necessities like food and clothing, as well as an open door to mental health counseling and coaching for substance use disorder.

Proulx said he knew Parsons, though not for very long. Everybody’s different, but Proulx noted a common lament among Parsons and the majority of the county’s houseless population.

“It’s that sense of ‘no way out; I feel like I’m playing against a stacked deck,’” Proulx said, referring to the hurdles of inflation, a lack of available permanent housing, and the challenges of reclaiming one’s sobriety and/or mental health.

Those issues are personified in some of the approximately 10 people who, for a second year in a row, are spending the warmer months camping off Bakery Lane, the Abbey Pond Trailhead, and along portions of Otter Creek. A few have gained notoriety through occasional acts of vandalism, assault, public urination and alcohol consumption, theft and violations of court orders. Those offenses are chronicled weekly in the crime log published in the Independent.

But what isn’t brought to the fore, according to outreach workers, is the extent to which most of the houseless community is too focused on survival to delve into crime, and the level to which they’ve been looking after their own. Proulx pointed out a member of the community named “Rob,” who’s become an unofficial leader. The Independent accompanied Proulx during his rounds one day late last week. Rob declined an interview offer.

“For the most part, they’re very amicable; they know us by name and are happy to see us — even when they don’t need services,” Proulx said. “They’re thankful.”

Proulx beamed while recalling community efforts to help houseless individuals during a recent spate of hot weather.

“I was constantly hearing about people dropping off coolers of ice water,” he said. “They would stop by in their cars and ask, ‘Are you guys OK, do you need anything?’”

Advocates are aware of the reactions that many observers have when seeing the Bakery Lane encampment, such as:

“Some of those people look able-bodied, why aren’t they working?”

“Can’t they find someplace else to go?”

Proulx has heard it all.

“I find in human services work it’s very helpful to educate yourself constantly; that way you can better reinforce your empathy for your fellow human beings out there,” he said. “The more you know about brain chemistry, mental health and substance use disorder, the more you realize it isn’t ‘just’ getting a job so they can ‘just’ get a house. It’s really not that simple. There’s a lot going on. We don’t even think about the people we walk by on the sidewalk every day; you don’t know what they’re going through. And it’s even more so for the people who live on those sidewalks.”

IN SURVIVAL MODE

Jennifer Stefani is coordinator of the Counseling Service of Addison County’s Emergency Team, which delivers mental health services to those in need. Stefani has become acutely aware of the circumstances surrounding those living on the streets in downtown Middlebury.

“Being in survival mode, not having a phone, not being able to get to a place at a certain time, feeling fear from other people, not having a place to store your few belongings, and stress,” are some of Stefani’s observations. “Then there’s the stigma, poverty, sleeplessness — all these things create a sort of need to be in a protected place.”

HOMELESS ADVOCATE JENNIFER STEFANI

Barring an involuntary hospitalization, mental health officials can’t force someone to undergo treatment; they can only convey encouragement and availability, Stefani noted.

“The idea of mental health help is usually either ‘talk therapy’ or medications that don’t really seem pertinent to some of those basic survival issues,” she added. “The way we try to approach it is to create relationships wherever we can, by building familiarity and a sense of welcome and availability.”

She said people with urgent mental health needs are urged to make a same day visit to CSAC’s offices, or the agency’s mobile crisis team can travel to the patient. Folks in need can call CSAC at 802-388-7641 around the clock.

“The reality of homelessness can seem very bleak, and it can be hard to hold on to hope,” Stefani said. “We try to respond with compassion and understanding because systemic injustice is hard to ignore, escape, or change — and at the same time, we try to hold on to hope for compassionate legislation and understanding and kind responses from our entire community.”

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Sadly, Steven Parsons is among several houseless people for whom Middlebury was the last stop on life’s journey.

In January 2018, 45-year-old Suad Teocanin froze to death on a bench on the Middlebury town green, ironically just a stone’s throw away from the Charter House shelter.

Middlebury Police Detective Chris Mason — who investigated the Parsons death — recalled a woman who starved herself to death while living off the Trail Around Middlebury a few years ago.

As a detective, Mason spearheads a lot of in-depth investigations and thus doesn’t have a ton of interaction with the houseless population. But he knows Middlebury PD has ramped up its patrols in the downtown to conduct welfare checks and make sure law and ordered is maintained. Mason likes the fact that the strategy has changed from a “you come to us” model of assistance to proactive outreach.

“It’s built a lot of relationships, and a lot of the people are pretty well known through community policing,” Mason said. “We generally have very positive relationships with (that community).”

Charter House officials are also playing a huge role in outreach efforts. Savanna Montoya is associate director of the 27 North Pleasant St. shelter, which maintains 25 beds and an “overflow” area that recently accommodated seven additional houseless people. The shelter’s 25 beds are now full, with a wait list that’s ballooned to around 25, according to Montoya.

But she and her colleagues aren’t just focused on folks they serve inside the shelter. They have Chelsea Delisle, an outreach worker who networks with homeless folks who either can’t be served at Charter House because of the wait list, or who can’t/won’t conform to a structured setting.

Delisle spends around three days each week visiting houseless people on the streets and in known encampments elsewhere, handing out provisions like camping supplies and food. Folks are also encouraged to come to the Charter House for prepared meals and to chat with social service providers, according to Montoya.

“We’re seeing a lot of people from out of state,” Montoya said of the current Middlebury houseless population. “From what I’m hearing, people are saying Vermont has a lot of good resources. But I don’t think they’re also realizing that when they get here, there’s a housing shortage and almost all the other shelters in the state are full. We try to meet whatever barriers they have, but they don’t recognize (the hurdles) until they’re here.”

And Vermont’s homeless programs will soon become less generous.

The Vermont Department for Children & Families recently reminded communities leaders of “significant” changes in the state’s General Assistance Emergency Housing Program that took effect on July 1.

Under this new law, individuals must now meet specific eligibility criteria to qualify for a maximum of 80 nights of assistance from the program.

“Consequently, not all individuals experiencing homelessness will be eligible for this program. The legislation also stipulates a cap on the number of rooms the program can use. Specifically, from Sept. 15, 2024, to Nov. 30, 2024, and from April 1, 2025, to June 30, 2025, the program will be limited to using a maximum of 1,100 hotel or motel rooms statewide.”

STAFFS ARE AFFECTED

Montoya said Charter House guests shared in the grief surrounding Parsons’s recent suicide. And while Parsons was told to leave the shelter due to his behavior, his loss was also felt by staff. Parsons was one of two former Charter House guests who died last week (the other due to a medical condition), according to Montoya.

“To have back-to-back (deaths)… it’s definitely impacted everybody here,” she said.

Proulx remembers the last conversation he had with Parsons, five days before his death.

“He was very much in a state of mind that ‘We, as a society, should look out for each other more,’” Proulx recalled. “He wanted to write all this stuff down, but he never got around to doing it. He wanted to fill journals with little nuggets of wisdom he gained over the years. I think he had some good perspectives on the world we live in.”

Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].