{"id":5237,"date":"2011-12-21T06:39:12","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T11:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=5237"},"modified":"2011-12-27T09:37:33","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T14:37:33","slug":"morning-read-homeless-mans-death-sparks-debate-in-burlington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/12\/21\/morning-read-homeless-mans-death-sparks-debate-in-burlington\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Read: Homeless man’s death sparks debate in Burlington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul O’Toole, a former carpenter from Middlebury who has been homeless for two years, was found dead this week on a heating grate in Burlington.\u00a0 The cause of death was apparently hypothermia.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old man’s passing has revived a debate in Burlington over how to help people suffering from addiction in our northern region, particularly when the weather turns dangerous.<\/p>\n

This from the Burlington Free Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Family and friends say O\u2019Toole might have benefited from a low-barrier, or \u201cwet,\u201d shelter that would have taken in drunken people when the air turned frigid. Burlington police have yet to determine whether O\u2019Toole had been drinking at the time of his death and are awaiting the results of an autopsy report, Deputy Chief Andi Higbee said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, city officials and social workers have resumed talks about whether Burlington should create a low-barrier shelter. O\u2019Toole\u2019s family and friends, joined by a former Vermont state auditor, say the city should.<\/p>\n

\u201cA low-barrier shelter would be so awesome,\u201d Mary O\u2019Toole said. \u201cHe was not able to navigate the rules of, \u2018You have to stay sober, you have to do this or do that.\u2019 He just really had a hard time navigating all that stuff. … Why should someone have to navigate getting a warm place to stay? It should be wide open.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what do you think?\u00a0 Is our society doing enough to help those who spiral down to these dangerous depths?\u00a0 Do you see people at risk in your community?<\/p>\n

Comments welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul O’Toole, a former carpenter from Middlebury who has been homeless for two years, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10,879],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5238,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5237\/revisions\/5238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}