|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Guy Page
Almost every issue of VDC contains a story directly or indirectly about homelessness or drug abuse. The suffering is raw, appalling. I look around at the Vermont I grew up in and have covered for decades as a reporter on the state and local level, and here’s what I see:
When growing in-migration and substance abuse collides with decades of elite-driven anti-housing policies, the poorest and the most needy suffer.
Growing in-migration: how many well-off Covid refugees, illegal immigrants and home-seeking homeless people have moved to Vermont since 2021? The question is fraught with political blame, so government isn’t holding press conferences to give us the answer. We just don’t know.
We do know the U.S. Census shows that net in-migration has been on the rise since 2021, when the office-free Covid work policies and urban unrest drove northeastern city dwellers here in droves, spiking the already prohibitive cost of housing. And like a vicious, unending game of musical chairs, people started getting left out.
Covid policies also threw people out of work and into isolation, exacerbating an already awful substance abuse epidemic. And the federal and state governments provided free housing with little if any restraints on behavior short of beating up a fellow free tenant. Requirements to work at getting off drugs or become more employable are considered victimizing, rather than the tough love they truly are.
Vermont’s restrictive state and local housing construction laws and policies have only grown since the inception of Act 250 more than a half-century ago. If you have enough moolah to buy 10 acres in Underhill, you can build your McMansion. For doctors, professors, technocrats, and trust funders, it’s a beautiful thing. The bears and the deer are welcome in your neighborhood, the riff-raff, not so much. For them, decades too late, and under great pressure, the Legislature relaxed Act 250 in some urban centers.
‘Green’ building codes and other red tape make it more expensive for well-meaning entrepreneurs to renovate old apartment houses in urban cores. Surely no-one in Montpelier or City Hall foresaw desperately needed but uninhabitable living spaces when they imposed a myriad of new building codes.
But they should have.
Instead, they’ve made the landlords the bad guys. They see themselves as the new sheriff in town, ready to impose rent control and ‘just cause’ eviction.
The Biden Border “contributed” bigly to Vermont drug abuse and homelessness. It let in record amounts of illegal immigrants and fentanyl.
Result of all this mismanaged mess: more people to house, fewer habitable homes, fewer people able to work to pay the rent, and who suffers? Not Vermont’s elite, snug in their comfy homes and secure jobs.
No. It harms two groups of people (and their families).
Hard-working low wage earners who simply can’t afford to pay market rates in the midst of growing demand and declining supply. And, drug addicts who can’t work to earn rent money and instead commit property crimes, sell drugs to others, panhandle, couch surf, or just plain live outside.
If Montpelier had heeded the countless warnings of the human consequences of restrictive housing construction policies, and if Montpelier had imposed tough love housing and criminal justice policies on drug abusers, we wouldn’t be in as big of a mess.
Here’s hoping Senate Pro Tem Phil Baruth and whoever ends up as Speaker of the House swallow their pride and decide to appoint committee chairs who value people more than bears, and recovery more than enabling.
Discover more from Vermont Daily Chronicle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categories: Commentary
Spot on!
And the bolt cutters are used for;
1. Visiting local residents and relieving them of the burden of their property.
2. Taking off ankle monitors post catch and release.
3. Breaking out of rehab center( not jail)
4. Taking rings from funeral homes
5. All the above.
Additionally non profit housing businesses make off like bandits (here in Windham County). They propose a new building to serve the out of a home crisis, and suggest they will bring on new low income housing for this need. It’s a great thing! They say, the young teachers, the young cashiers, the young work force looking to earn enough to marry and raise a family will be served. That is, if their gonads work after running the mill of sterilization by soy foods and by covid injection, or if they haven’t been convinced to part with them altogether. However, after the collective hugging and feelings of smug doo gooderism fades, and the local granola people commit themselves to this project -for the right reasons, only then are the real reasons are executed behind the scenes.
These are open air financial prisons, built by groups of people of nonprofit foundations skilled in financial fleecing. Lets tackle the latter claim first: The scam is in the grant hand-out phase, certain non profits are connected-connected, in that they are not denied, they are fast tracked they are known and they are part of the fleecing river of money from the government. The grants are taxation, only the flow of money is down stream, and it appears chaste of personal theft, as local taxes are not. The projects are overvalued and over funded, a single unit of one of these open air financial prisons could buy an entire house on Main Street that often has or can have 3 to 4 units with remodeling. Were WWHT to offer these same grants to the local landlords, the existing houses would suffice and the personal oversight would benefit the community, whereas the WWHT builds, and sucks the grants and neglects.
Furthermore the local landowner would proffer up 10 k to the town in property taxes for the single house housing 3 to 4 apartments. The 24 unit building costing 15 million will pay ( by dastardly cunning of all the players), only 22k for all the units. They pocket the difference, not unlike the army ordering toilet paper at 18 dollars a roll. The people of the town, whose taxes have gone up by 40% since the reevaluation was delivered to deliberately overvalue the properties to serve the WWHT, who by the cunning described herein have conned the hard working people into paying for the services needed for their soul sucking building plans.
However here is the ultimate poison, the people they fill these nasty cheaply built for too high a price buildings, are NOT the people of the town who need low income housing, they are by law (of non profit profiteering) the most incapable and non working of peoples from afar. This we don’t learn until later and all those who raise the alarm are, you guessed it, “RACIST NIMBYs”, IN other words, the working people of the town are shut out. The drug addicts are invited in.
Now for the final insult, those who do come to live there are bound by rules to never accumulate more than 2 k in savings. How much can you accomplish by way of moving or down payment with 2k? The host non profit claim access to the sock drawer and under the mattress so to speak of every tenant, so compliance in order for housing is a part time job in and of itself. The rest of the work for each tenant is to appear as helpless and incapable as possible, just like WWHT likes it, so they can continue hosing the maximum flow of grants into their coffers.
Go down to the Brattleboro Housing Trust, big grey buildings, people inside all day long, and no character outside. They are Open air prisons. I could go on, regarding the lies the court will uphold to allow for a large building to built on a parcel too tiny to hold it, all of them, every one of them profiting along the route and ignoring the webbing of all. Then, they hide them, you can’t find their locations on their websites, they find acreage out of site. I however have seen some of them.
The 22 unit conversion of an old hotel for homeless veterans, cost 6 million, and interestingly the 18 unit in Montpelier cost 6 million, Never mind that this type of money could pay for housing in full for life for 100 people, who could be asked to pay the taxes only and have housing security where they might advance their prosperity in a variety of ways that these non profits prohibit.
Helplessness by demand. Its disgusting.
I say bingo to Emily for pointing out that everything done in Vermont by the legislature is connected to the nonprofits and the people sucking up the money with little results. The amount of money that’s wasted in Vermont is a sin in and of itself. Study this and study that, create boards and commissions and bring in the lobbyists. While I am fortunate to have a small home, as a widower I may be forced out of Vermont if I can’t continue to work in my 70s.
Build it and they will come, the problem is they are coming to Vermont from other states for the freebies. These so-called nonprofits suck up the money by paying the head beagle 6 figure incomes and the others getting nice salaries with 25% or less going to the mission they claim to be helping. It’s all a farce perpetrated by the progressive party, the democrats used to do much better until they signed on with the progs.
Emily’s description of the wealthy liberals living comfy in their McMasions is exactly correct. While they raise their nose at the regular working people and think highly of themselves for being WOKE and so caring and inclusive is spot on. These people are insulated from the horrid conditions around the state, drug addiction, crime and chaos going on outside of their pristine neighborhoods. I say liberals because they are the bulk of the invasion with the money to do so from other blue states. They escaped during COVID and are here now to vote for the same policies that eventually drove them out of the state they left. Vermont is awash in the connected class. Call it what you want but the bottom line is, it all stinks of corruption or incompetence or both.
So true, and there is so much more too! Often buildings are built by tax credit, a direct reduction of taxes. Often with sweet heart financing deals. Oft with loans forgiven. And oft after thirty years of bought, paid for subsidized by the tax payer it is now free to convert to high value private ownership, which starts to make more sense in the quest of, why would they build such extravagant housing for modest living? Line thy pockets, stuff thy pockets til they overflow, free tax payer money for thee, you serfs can own nothing and be happy.
Bingo Guy !
We could build 5 million new homes in VT and these lowlifes you see in the streets would still not be “housed” unless they got it for free. Drug addiction is a luxury provided to them by the government stealing from us and giving to them, or a parent/family member enabling their behavior.
I agree that government regulation does prevent new homes and businesses from being built as quickly as they could be, however that is what makes Vermont Vermont. Vermont was always a place where the middle class could afford to live on a large parcel of land and homestead. The middle class will not be able to afford any new construction, even after the removal of act 250. Large inner city planners and strip mall builders will eventually take over the state and make it look unrecognizable.
If you look at the current housing stock, it’s falling apart because people can’t afford the upkeep. What would help is fixing the expenses that government is imposing on us, and allowing everyone to have the money and ability to fix and maintain their current homes that already exists. Most people don’t want the inconveniences of the rural lifestyle, so Vermont should be interested in retaining and attracting the type of people that want to live the Vermont way of life. Instead, you have housing development special interested in moving here, immediately running for select boards and other government positions, and trying to drastically change VT.
Stop subsidizing undesirable behavior:
1. Privatize bus lines, and disallow any public funds to subsidize them.
2. Any public subsidy or welfare program requires the same requirements as a 4473 gun purchase. (no felons, alcoholics, or drug users)
3. Any public subsidy or welfare requires 2 year Vermont work history.
4. Anyone sleeping in the streets in dangerous deadly conditions gets evicted with option to get transported to a warmer state
5. Improper disposal of needles $1000 bounty. Punishment $10,000 fine first offense. 1 year mandatory inpatient correction program or jail subsequent offenses, and requirement to pay for it.
6. $1000 fine for littering with $100 bounty. Jail if it can not be paid in 1 year.
7. Mandatory jail time for any crime that has a victim, if the victim chooses. Mandatory victim restitution if the victim chooses.
8. Reorganize the prison system with very strict boot camp military style self improvement programs. Every day you announce what you did to get yourself in there as soon as you wake up, form a line do jumping jacks drill Sargent style no BS.
9. Harsh mandatory minimum sentences for illegal drug dealing, however allow doctors to write prescriptions for any legal drug for any reason.
10. Bleeding from doing drugs, urinating, defecating, in any inappropriate area is a hazmat violation – Mandatory harsh punishments with bounty
11. Trespassing – Mandatory harsh punishment
12. Implementing Texas code for allowing deadly force against forceful robbery.
13. Insurance policy and bond requirement for law enforcement officers, that they are responsible to pay for. Insurance will be required to cover all civil litigation, not the state.
14. Enforce the constitutional law and put politicians and state actors in prison when they break these very important laws
15. Stop allowing the State to do anything to cause increase in costs to the middle class.
I’ve been watching this play out over my lifetime. It has been clear to me that VT has long been destined to be a playground for the rich with just enough of us worker bees to keep the lights on and things running. The Drug problem has been a godsend to them so they can feel so high and mighty tossing enough scraps to keep them barely alive .
Check out Community Supported Shelters used for 10+ years in Oregon using small lockable units to be a step up from tents and sidewalks. https://www.communitysupportedshelters.org/ These units do hold up in Vermont winters. Check out vthope.net/microd.html They cost under $2K to build. There they clustered 20-30 together in a community block – 3 settings – one for mentally challenged, one for veterans and another for those with drug issues. They also could be found on community non-profit parking lots.
Three homeless people died recently – apparently from freezing to death. How many more will freeze to death, overdose, murdered, or simply take the free euthenasia (aka State sponsored suicide – which a statistic published this week – 1 out of 8 causes of death in Canada is now government sponsored suicide.) Mayor Adams of NYC spoke out this week about 500,000 missing children? Oh the humanity! or rather, lack thereof – our society is woefully ignorant, spiritually blind, callous, and given over to reprobate minds.
It should be painfully obvious, the government, the NGOs and non-profits simply do not care to solve the problem. Perhaps the actual boots on the ground dealing with people care, but do they grasp the problem getting worse? Do they not see or hear their overlords who are paid 10x their salary offer nothing but bloody after bloody worthless excuses? How many times do citizens approach local and state officials pointing out the obvious and get no response or the same worthless word salad excuses?
For the past few years, the death rate and crime rate is beyond the pale for this tiny State of delusion. Bodies found laying about like discarded litter. Drug overdoes and drug busts all over the State – cash, guns, and copious amounts of lethal, deadly pills and powder. What does our leadership do in response? Pushes racism, gender benders, perverted drag queens, and climate change! They raise taxes and fees that no one can afford, and pretend to address real issues that are destroying our communities. When will enough be enough here in this corrupt grifter’s paradise known as Vermont? It is disgusting and reprehensible. People are hurting and suffering worse each passing day. I see it in their faces. Does anyone else? The freaks of misery in charge are nothing more than thieves and liars. They lie with impunity through their State dental plan cared for teeth every single day. Woe onto all of them.
you said it better than I did
Melissa, they can’t make money, they can’t run programs and payroll if they solve the problem. If they solve the problem the grift is over. They want to expand the problem, because it create more jobs and program, it creates more government control, Marxist love this sheet, anything to break down a perfectly good person, family or republic gives them more control….
The ultimate question is who’s your daddy?
They want it to be them, government.
It is also why they abhor Jesus Christ.
Guy, this is classic Marxist dogma – seeing the world as oppressor vs. oppressed. It’s an intentionally promoted perspective, based on ignorance and fear.
Montpelier *can’t* help drug addicts or the homeless. The more they try, the worse the problems become. And it’s not ‘in-migration’ per se either. Vermont’s population has only recently risen, and even then, by statistically insignificant numbers. After all, the so-called ‘northeastern city dwellers’ who ‘moved here in droves’, weren’t buying low-income housing units.
The ‘government’ created this dysfunction, in no small part, because dysfunction has become their marketable commodity. As our legislators ‘struggle to think well of themselves’, they create problems in order to give the appearance that they are the only entity capable of fixing them. And now, the problems are so extensive, turning the corner from Marxist dogma to Free Enterprise is going to be painful – no matter what. We’ve marched into the middle of this swamp and we’re going to have to march out of it, not make it bigger.
The problem is our collective misunderstanding of what free enterprise actually is and how it works. And if we don’t allow free markets to exist … if our government continues to tax and spend frivolously … thereby consuming more and more of our discretionary capital… we’ll never learn.
If we can’t trust individuals to make their own decisions, sometimes making mistakes along the way and learning from the experience, we will never succeed as a society.
Right on… its a systemic idealogical issue… scraping the top of the iceberg off doesn’t address how icebergs are made, which would be the long term solution.
My ‘homeless’ situation is decades from being addressed before healthy and safe housing can be accessed by me… because the system (IOT/electrification agendas, and a cell tower every 1000 feet) is literally killing me silently. Health issues that lead to oxidative stress that are aggravated by exposure to levels of electricity (dirty electricity) and radiation (cell phones, towers, wifi) are constant… and affect every part of my life from accessing food, to a place to live, to healthcare (Where IOT was launched) facilities… half an hour is all I can endure before symptoms amp up…
Yes… living in a tent on one hand is healthier than living in an electrified wifi’d space …but… wow… ever tried to LIVE, work, study while living in a tent? You spend ALL your time just doing ADLs to keep yourself alive…and to top it off, get gaslighted for what I am precluded from doing because of health.
As a Whistleblower for this health crisis coming down around us in our health outcomes… I can say no one cares about just individual needs… the shaming can be debilitating coming as it does on top of endless pursuits of solutions that are bad or worse than the situation I’m already in…
My faith keeps me going, and the many blessings He has brought to me…and His care comes through from places I never thought to consider… but three years of camping out has a health backlash that is coming to roost…with no end in site.
I just need a yurt or a cabin, electrified as little as possible, and no more than 250 sq feet in a rural, quiet zone, where there is no wifi, cell towers, or cell phones… the cost would be under 12,000 dollars. Can’t be that with a stick…
And no… I’m shouldering this on me own… so keep me in your prayers this season, along with all those living rough, and wondering where ‘love thy neighbor’ comes into their lives… and who still cares…