This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
When state leaders debate remedies for homelessness in Vermont, the people most impacted by their decisions are not often in the room.
Enter: Morgan Brown. He voiced the needs of Vermonters experiencing housing insecurity, including himself. Surrounded by people paid to roam the Statehouse halls — lobbyists and journalists wearing suits and well-manicured haircuts — Brown became a fixture in the capitol in the 2000s, recalled former Times Argus and Rutland Herald reporter Daniel Barlow.
“There was Morgan, you know, showing up at the Statehouse every day while being homeless and advocating for people who often had less than he did,” said Barlow.
Brown died in the early hours of Tuesday, Dec. 16, after a monthslong battle with colon cancer, according to friends and relatives. He was 70.
Those who knew him well recounted a tireless advocate and prolific poet who preached compassion and empathy for Vermonters living on the margins.
“I think sometimes in the housing world we get very focused on the units,” said Rick DeAngelis, who worked at housing and homelessness organizations in central Vermont before retiring as director of Good Samaritan Haven last year. Brown understood the need to boost the supply of homes and shelter space, DeAngelis said, but he often shared another message.
“[Brown] reminded us again and again that it’s about the human connection between people, and people taking care of each other,” DeAngelis said.
Brown came to Vermont decades ago after spending his childhood in Massachusetts, he recalled in an interview with VTDigger this spring. It took him many years to find a stable place to land. Brown stayed for a time at Another Way, a Montpelier community center for unhoused Vermonters and psychiatric survivors, and cycled through a variety of living situations before moving into a subsidized apartment in the city about 15 years ago.
His writing reflected his struggles with housing instability. In a 2006 poem entitled “homeless sneakers,” he wrote: “...those foul / footwear are in much / better shape, than the person / who will be barely / surviving inside them.” The remedy — for the shoes, and the person — would be “...an abode / of their own.”
Beyond advocating at the Statehouse or at City Hall, Brown made a point of bringing good cheer to his neighbors. He penned frequent — and frequently humorous — posts on Montpelier’s Front Porch Forum. Around Christmastime two years ago, he donned a Santa suit and visited local homeless encampments.
“He just wanted people to feel belonging that he did not feel while he was living outside,” said Brenda Siegel, director of End Homelessness Vermont and a friend of Brown’s.
Brown increasingly accepted care from others as his condition deteriorated this year. In the final post he made on his blog, Green Mountain Meandering Missives, about a month ago, Brown noted the many ways neighbors had come to his aid: friends delivered him donuts and eggs; others brought him compression socks to help with the swelling in his legs and feet.
His beloved cat, Miss “Cleo” Cleopatra, was a constant source of comfort. He often referred to her as “Nurse Cleo.”
“When asked about his days, his family always received two pieces of news: What Cleo was up to, and what he was trying to do to make the community a better place,” wrote Justin Brown, Morgan’s son, in an email.
Brown emphasized to his blog readers that he was at peace with his prognosis. During his final day in hospice care this week, Siegel read Brown many of his own poems.
Brown is survived by his two children, Justin Brown and Alex Grey, his granddaughter Kirana, and his siblings, Alison Lawson and Jeff Hackett. His cat, Cleo, is currently at the Central Vermont Humane Society while Brown’s family and friends, along with shelter staff, attempt to find her an appropriate home, according to Justin.
Brown’s life will be honored as part of a broader vigil at the Statehouse for unhoused people who have died in the past year on Dec. 22 at 4:15 p.m. Friends and family are also planning a separate memorial but have not yet set a date.
