A Courant profile of one member of a Connecticut Board of Selectmen highlights how different policymaking might be were it responsive to those most affected by policy: In 2003, as a candidate of the union-backed Working Families Party, Noble was elected to the Windham Board of Selectmen, one of two Working Families candidates in the state to win positions on an elected board. But she has retained her outsider's point of view. In June, when Windham selectmen considered backing a plan to renovate the notorious former Hotel Hooker into supportive housing for the working poor and formerly homeless, Noble offered a different viewpoint. Residents opposing the project kept referring to the potential tenants as "those people," as in, "there are too many of those people in town already." As a former one of "those people," Noble, 40, wanted to know the view from inside similar projects. "I want to hear from the tenants," she said. "Has their life improved? Do they like their units?" Everyone else, it seemed, was more interested in the project's effect on the town, rather than on those who stood to benefit. "I get angry and frustrated," Noble said later. "No one has talked about the people except to call them low-lifes and derelicts. It makes me sick. Everybody falls on hard times." Noble, more than most, understands.