Tracy Brannstrom
MONTPELIER — Two new members were appointed to the city’s Homelessness Committee: Trinity United Methodist Church Pastor Jay Voorhees and Nancy Reid, who volunteers and serves on the boards of the emergency cold weather shelter and senior center food pantry. Reid also serves as president of The Bridge’s board of directors.
Reid told councilors at an Aug. 26 city council meeting that she joined partly out of frustration with what she sees as a lack of coordination among entities addressing homelessness; she suggested the council reconvene a large meeting it held last April to bring service providers together to share information.
Voorhees said he wanted to join because he works with people experiencing homelessness through The Community Table, a free community lunch program run by five local churches and served out of Trinity. Before moving to Vermont, he served on a shelter and outreach committee and ran a transitional housing facility in Tennessee, he said.
Newly appointed City Councilor Paul Costello thanked both for applying, saying, “William James called the battle against poverty the functional equivalent of war, and people who stand up in that battle are great heroes of our society and great heroes of Montpelier.”
