WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Christopher Lane was among the people in 30 households staying at Shady Lawn Motel through Vermont’s motel voucher program before the state stopped funding emergency housing earlier this month.

Less than a week after his voucher ran out on July 1, police found Lane dead in a tent on Credit Court, a side street off of Maple Street located behind Shady Lawn. He was 32.

On July 5, Hartford police responded to a call from a property owner requesting that Lane and his belongings be removed from their property a little before noon. It was then that police found Lane’s body “with a bunch of personal items strewn about,” officer Duncan MacDonald said.

An autopsy is still pending, MacDonald said.

But those who knew Lane said he had chronic health issues. “He had a serious disease,” Binoy Mody, the owner of the Shady Lawn Motel, said in an interview in the motel’s lobby last week. “Camping was very dangerous for him.”

Mody did not know the specifics of Lane’s disease, only that he had a weak immune system.

Lane lived at Shady Lawn Motel for about four weeks through the COVID-era state funded program that provided emergency shelter for eligible homeless people in hotels and motels.

State lawmakers budgeted about $44 million for the program for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

In mid-March, Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoed lawmakers’ budget adjustment bill that included extending the voucher program for three months.

Scott later issued an executive order that allowed families with children and those with acute medical needs to stay longer. On July 1 the extension ran out and 800 people including 30 households living at Shady Lawn lost their vouchers.

“I feel for them but there’s nothing I can do,” Mody said. “All of a sudden it was ‘nope you have to be out’.” Mody is worried about the well-being of a few other previous residents with medical equipment that relies on electricity.

Because so many lost their vouchers, less than half of Shady Lawn’s 34 guest rooms are now occupied, Mody said.

After leaving Shady Lawn, Lane first camped at the bus stop across the street until police told him to move. He subsequently moved to Credit Court.

“I thought he found a place to live,” Mody said. “He was a nice guy. He was good with electronics and was developing some software or an algorithm.”

Lane was passing through the area looking for his brother, Mody said.

Another former resident of the Shady Lawn, a budget motel that goes back to the 1950s, had been living there since October through the state voucher program. Mary, who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of her safety, attributed Lane’s death to the end of the motel voucher program.

“If they did not take away the voucher thing on the 1st, he’d still be here,” she said.

Although Mary did not know Lane well, she described him as “super brainy.”

Mary, who Mody said is known as “Mother Mary” at Shady Lawn, gave Lane food a few times, she said.

Last Friday at the motel, Mary was packing up her belongings with plans to move the campground at Quechee State Park on Sunday.

“The people who are making the decisions have no clue what it’s like to be living out here on the streets,” she said. “They’ll only let us get so far before they pull the rug out from underneath us.”

Mary, and at times her 16-year-old daughter, had been at the Shady Lawn “because of domestic issues” Mary said. “We were in a bad situation that wasn’t safe anymore… I can’t afford to be on my own. I have to choose between the abuse and being homeless.”

For 12 days after July 1, Mary “scraped and scraped” to come up with $65, a reduced rate from the usual $80 per night fee, to stay at the Shady Lawn. “It took every penny to stay here,” she said.

Mody allowed Mary to stay for the reduced rate because “she didn’t have any money,” he said.

Although she used to clean houses and worked at a restaurant in the area, Mary has not worked for a few months. Her car stopped running and her license was revoked after she was caught driving with an expired and later a suspended license, she said.

“I was working so I kept driving,” she said. “Every time I was stopped I was going to work or leaving work.”

Through donations from a church, Mary was able to afford a three-walled wooden lean-to with a roof at Quechee State Park. Under state park rules she can only stay for 21 days. Every weekend, Mary must move herself and her belongings since other campers had already reserved it.

Mary, breaking down into tears, said she does not know where she’ll go on weekends, or what she’ll do when her 21-day stay is up in early August.

“Once I have a job I’ll feel like I have a way out,” Mary said from her lean-to. “I felt safe until the voucher program ended. Having a home is so important.”

By early afternoon on Monday, Mary was getting ready to walk from the campsite to nearby Route 4 toward Quechee Gorge. She planned to ask each restaurant and shop if they’re hiring.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.