Housing advocate Brenda Siegel first met Tammy Menard on the steps of the Vermont Statehouse during a 2021 protest that asked state leaders to give shelter to people who needed it through a state-sponsored motel program.
In September, after facing housing insecurity for years, Tammy and her husband, Lucas Menard, were forced to leave their motel room when their 80-day voucher ended, according to Siegel.
Since then, the couple had been living outside on land in Wolcott. Late Wednesday afternoon, Tammy and Lucas were found dead in their tent. What caused their deaths has not been determined, and the Lamoille Sheriff’s Department, which responded to the scene, had no further information Friday afternoon. Foul play is not suspected, the department said in a press release.
“People can’t live outside,” Siegel said on Friday, her voice breaking. “They’re at risk of dying when they live outside.”
Despite facing housing insecurity themselves, Tammy and Lucas organized and advocated for others in their position, according to a number of people who knew them.
At the 2021 protest, Tammy connected several people who were struggling to find housing with End Homelessness Vermont, Siegel’s organization.
“We had our hotline started while we were on the steps, and she would contact us when she had someone in the overflow, or when she had someone at the day shelter, or when she was interacting with somebody who was outside who needed help getting inside,” Siegel said.
Around 2017, Tammy and Lucas — or “Troll,” a childhood nickname that stuck — met Matthew and Kathryn Nunnelley at Capital Community Church in Montpelier, where Matthew is the pastor.
The Menards were living in a van, which was having mechanical problems and was stationed in a nearby parking lot, Matthew said. At the church’s Thursday night dinner, he noticed the couple, who seemed stranded because of their car, and invited them in. Tammy came in right away, Matthew said, but Lucas needed some convincing. Tammy started coming more regularly, and slowly but surely, Lucas followed suit.
“There were a lot of times when he introduced me as his pastor, and people would cock their heads like, you go to church?” Matthew said with a laugh.
While Tammy was widely described as people-oriented and ready to help, Lucas was more reserved, Kathryn said. Kathryn and Lucas were the same age, with birthdays in September, so Lucas proposed a cookout with burgers before the church service, she said.
“Troll, he definitely kind of had a gruff, tough exterior, but he was definitely tender inside,” Kathryn said. “You just had to get to that place where he trusted you to see that. I would just say that I feel honored to have seen that part of him.”
The Nunnelleys considered the Menards family.
“I can’t believe that I’ll never see them or talk to them again,” Kathryn said, “and they won’t be there in the pews with us. Tammy made her stuffing for our meal last week, and, you know, she’ll never do that again for us.”
‘Two strikes against them’
Rick DeAngelis, who recently retired from his post as the director of Good Samaritan Haven, a shelter in Barre, said he met the Menards when they stayed at the Econo Lodge in Montpelier, where the shelter operated during the pandemic. Then, a few years later, Tammy was a staff member at Another Way, a drop-in center in Montpelier.
“We were jointly operating a warming shelter at the bus station in Montpelier with Another Way, and Tammy was often there,” DeAngelis said. “She was there more than anybody else as the staff person.”
At times, he said, Tammy was eligible for housing assistance and Lucas wasn’t, and so he couldn’t live with her.
“She wanted to be with him, even if that meant being homeless,” DeAngelis said.
The Menards went in and out of housing over the last few years. After the 2021 protest on the Statehouse lawn, Siegel next encountered Tammy and Lucas when a colleague happened upon an encampment.
“They were struggling to get back in the hotels,” she said. “We were able to help them get back in, and they’ve remained our clients since then.”
Both struggled with health problems that made the lack of housing especially difficult, Siegel said. Tammy had diabetes and needed refrigerated insulin. She had both her knees replaced. Lucas had a blood clot in a vein going to his liver. In January 2024, Tammy lost most of her belongings in a fire at an encampment, including warm winter gear, blankets “and all my medicine,” she wrote in a GoFundMe post.
“Unfortunately, I’m homeless due to medical conditions that prevent me from being able to hold a full time job to afford housing,” she wrote.
Because of their health conditions, Siegel said her organization had been advocating to get them back into the state’s motel program, but they were denied.
Chris Winters, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, did not immediately respond to a reporters’ phone call on Friday.
DeAngelis said recent knee surgeries had helped Tammy become more mobile, and it seemed like things were taking a turn for the better. Only a week ago, Tammy asked if DeAngelis would serve as a reference for her. She wanted to work at Good Samaritan Haven, he said, and help people who were experiencing homelessness, too. He told her that maybe she could start looking for an apartment.
“The juxtaposition of this horrible thing and how well she was doing, it seemed — looking for a job,” he said, was “homelessness in a nutshell.”
“The folks that are experiencing homelessness, they’ve got two strikes against them,” he said. “It’s so hard to re-establish themselves in the system. And it feels like there’s no justice.”
Siegel said she and her staff members had spoken with Tammy in the days leading up to her death. The couple had recently been cleared to re-enter the hotel program on Dec. 1, but they hadn’t yet found a place that had availability.
“They were not doing well,” Siegel said. “She presented with high spirits, and in those days she told me that they would make it, but she just was really starting to worry about their health, so she was regularly checking in to see, had we found a spot?”
Siegel said Tammy was “always thinking about how she could help other people, even in her most high-need moments.”
In 2023, Tammy posted an image to Facebook that said: “Love your family. Spend time, be kind and serve one another. Make no room for regrets. Tomorrow is not promised and today is short.”
A vigil will be held for Tammy and Lucas Menard at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at Montpelier City Hall.
Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘Tomorrow is not promised:’ Community remembers Tammy and Lucas Menard.