16th Homelessness Marathon live from Brattleboro, Vermont

Tune in for the 16th Homelessness Marathon live from Brattleboro, Vermont. Hear the voices of homeless people from across the country talking about the reality of their lives. Anyone, (housed or homeless), can call the Marathon at 877-NOBODY8 or 877 662-6398.

Brattleboro is a town of only about 10,000-12,000 people with a burgeoning homeless population.  The Homelessness Marathon will originate from in front of the Brattleboro First Baptist Church. The church is the site of Brattleboro's overflow shelter (operated by the Brattleboro Drop-In Center), a place where men and women, in separate rooms, can sleep on the floor and get through the night. Some nights, as many as forty people sleep there. 

4PM - Hour 1 The Drop-In Center's director Lucy Fortier, and several of the folks who spend the night at the overflow shelter will help us to understand who they are, how they got there and what they face.

5PM - Hour 2  "Who's In The Emergency Shelter?" The official emergency shelter in Brattleboro is the Morningside Shelter. It holds a maximum of 29 people. It is in a very large, well-kept house in the middle of an upscale neighborhood, where it is not always entirely welcome. The people living here have a little more stability than the people in the overflow shelter, but they're still homeless. We'll meet them and hear their stories.

6PM - Hour 3  More Homeless People from Brattleboro. Not all homeless people fall into even the loosest category, so we're not going to categorize this hour. We're just going to invite some of Brattleboro's poorest citizens into our broadcast booth and talk with them.

7PM - Hour 4  Reports from Around the Country  – Gordon Walker, Director of the Housing and Community Development, Division of the Utah Department of Workforce Services. Utah has announced its plans to 
end chronic homelessness in the state by 2015 and Mr. Walker is heading up the effort. 

Mike Rhodes, editor of the Community Alliance newspaper of Fresno and a board member of the Homelessness Marathon. Mike and one or two members of Fresno's homeless community will discuss Fresno's official campaign to assault homeless encampments.

8PM - Hour 5  More reports from Around The Country -  Jeff Girrard, who blogs under the name jeff4justice, lived in his car for years and still lives in it part time. He can tell us what the "rubber tramp" community is like and why it exists.

Paul Boden, field director for the Western Regional Advocacy Project and member of the Homelessness Marathon board, is spearheading a campaign in California to get a "Homeless Bill of Rights" passed by the legislature. He will be joined by Ibrahim Mubarak, the dean of the Portland, OR tent community.

9PM - Hour 6 Midnight Forum: "Where Do We Go From Here?" A conversation about how do we get our country to actual address the problems of the poor and do something about them. Participants to include: Cheri Honkala, 2012 Green Party vice-presidential candidate, founder of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and board member of the Homelessness Marathon: Other participants TBA.