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Brattleboro, Vermont. Photo courtesy National Endowment for the Humanities
By Olivia Conti Community News Service
Sohaila Nabizada had never driven a car when she resettled in southern Vermont in January 2022, one of almost 100 Afghan refugees in the first wave of those who fled after the Taliban took control of their country. Back home she was used to riding public transit, she said, but found few options for that around Brattleboro.
Her first year here, she received rides from her landlord until she could get a driver’s license and a vehicle, she said.
Nowadays she can get around without issue. But other refugees in the area still struggle, she said. “The biggest problem for other people are housing and transportation, housing, transportation and job,” she said. “There are people, they do not have the job they wanted. They do not have the house or housing they needed because they could not find a good job … And there is not public transportation.”
Southern Vermont is a difficult place to travel without a car. It’s rural and the buses don’t travel off the main roads or after 5 p.m. Second- and third-shift workers without personal vehicles can be left to rely on carpools, biking or hitchhiking.
Through the Moover, a program run by Southeast Vermont Transit, people in southeastern Vermont can ride free buses painted with white and black cow spots in an effort to fill transportation gaps.
And this year the free transportation service has rolled out new offerings in Brattleboro that could further help people like those refugees get to and from jobs, health care and more. About five months ago Moover introduced MicroMoo2, a microtransit system. That’s the new buzzword in the transportation industry, as Randy Schoonmaker, CEO of Southeast Vermont Transit, puts it.
On the ground, microtransit systems function similarly to rideshare services Uber and Lyft. Users can go online or call to reserve a ride from any location — in Moover’s case, within the limits of Brattleboro and between 5 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. The Brattleboro service isn’t a network of individual drivers, though; the MicroMoo2 is a 12-seat bus.
Schoonmaker knows of about 12 refugees who have benefited from using MicroMoo2 to travel to their second- and third-shift jobs since the service launched in April. The new microtransit service averages 30 riders a night. “They had no way of getting to those jobs without the service,” Schoonmaker said. “So the employers are filling shifts, and the refugees have higher-paying jobs than they would (otherwise).”
Refugees have been resettling in Vermont since the 1980s. In the last decade or so, more than 2,600 have found new homes here, coming from countries like Bhutan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, according to a state report this summer. In the 2022 and 2023 federal fiscal years, 315 refugees from Afghanistan resettled in Vermont, according to that report.
Regional planning commissions across the state see refugees as one group of people who need transportation equity improvements, according to a Vermont Agency of Transportation report last fall. The report suggested the state Department of Motor Vehicles can work to better understand new immigrant communities, the languages they speak and how their needs can be met. Navigating English-language drivers’ education can be difficult for people coming from countries where English isn’t widely taught or spoken.
Back in late 2021 and early 2022, when the first wave of Afghan refugees arrived to resettle in southern Vermont, the Brattleboro Ethiopian Community Development Council stepped up to help welcome them, said Ian Hefele, the group’s community engagement manager.
Before MicroMoo2 started this year, Hefele said he knew of refugees in Brattleboro biking at night with no light or attempting to hitchhike to get to work. Now, people who used to be limited in getting around past 5 p.m. have more options to go shopping, make appointments and visit friends.
Any Brattleboroean can benefit from MicroMoo2 — and the need for area microtransit had existed for years prior — but the influx of resettled refugees made the need for transportation even more urgent. Leaders had tried to get MicroMoo2 funding in the past and it didn’t come through. But several organizations joined together to get the project off the ground this year. The Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. put $100,000 toward the launch phase with a grant, and the Town of Brattleboro provided $24,000 through its human services fund. That will fund the service for about 10 months, Schoonmaker said.
The state Agency of Transportation pulled in $40,000 in federal money and $10,000 from state funding to support the service once the initial $124,000 runs out. Those government funds, announced in May, will go into effect next February and cover the program for three years.
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Categories: Community News Service
$124,000 /100 = $1240
$124,00/25 = $4,980
Why are we implementing and entire transportation system for 100 people, matters not where they are from, this is stupid.
If you figure a family of 4 then we are spending $5k per family for transportation, it will surely not work within their budget just like EVERYOTHER transportation system the state has attempted.
If town members wish to support them, perhaps going 50-50 with them with towns people’s own money is the best way. The state money is not “free money”
BTW, we don’t have enough homes and good jobs for Vermonters. We should take care of our own before we try to save the world. We couldn’t save the world if we wanted to, regardless. It is not our job to save the world, it is only our job to love our neighbor.
Want to see some stingy people? Ask any of the people who voted for this, will you give $500 of your own money to help out? Suddenly when people have to use their own money, common sense comes into play, until people and towns have to use their own money, we will never see any change, because taking money from your pocket has no effect upon them.
Grant money is perhaps the biggest example of this abuse. My bet is that any community would never spend their own money on any of these grant projects. The projects don’t make sense when have to spend your own money, they only make sense when you have “FREE MONEY”…..to which there is no such thing.
Such predictable comments here: All public transportation – bad; all refugees – bad.
I agree Neil.
No matter who it is for, here we go again with yet another temporary “federal grant funded” project. Once the “federal grant money” dries up the cost of the service will be forced on the local or state taxpayers driving up taxes.
Why not charge a fee for those who use the bus service? Why is it free?
Liberals/Socialists don’t live in reality. They pretend that “grant money” is different than “taxpayer money.” It’s ALL taxpayer money!!
As Margaret Thatcher once said, “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you will run out of other people’s money.”
Dear Brian,
You are making statements about things I did NOT say.
Vermont public transportation is fraught with monetary problems because we have low density, low numbers of users and much distance to cover. Not all public transport is bad, but Vermont has yet to find something reasonable.
I most certainly did not say immigration was bad.
But then yours is the typical reply, make things up that I did not say and then accuse me of saying what you lied about. That’s called propaganda, gas lighting. It fails in the discourse of open discussion and public opinion.
Taking care of Vermonters first over other states, other countries is what we have Vermont State Government for.
I politely disagree with your comment.
@briancostellovt
If the public transportation was “good”, you wouldn’t need someone to use violent force of government to extract money from people that don’t support the service to pay for it. YOU would start a public transportation service, and YOU would pay for it, along with your supporters, voluntarily. Violence – bad.
Bonus, go look at the increase in graffiti, crime, drug dealing, human waste, and litter (including needles) around all the bus areas since the start of this “service”, and compare it to BEFORE this “service” started. It will only get MUCH worse if this continues. Lets add one of these stops in front of YOUR house.
In the age of the internet, there is no reason for government to use force for something so simple for us to arrange ourselves as a community. Violent people’s comments are so predictable.
Neil, when Brian submits his drive-by projections of all things liberal, he is simply defending his grifting rights on behalf of his federally funded income stream and of his fellow grifters. If it wasn’t for non-profiteers, Vermont would have no economy whatsoever. 5013c reigns supreme in the Green Mountain State! Perhaps instead of trying to beat the grifters, we should join them. We could come up with a non-profit laundering scheme to manipulate and scam taxpayers. We could pretend to implement sound policy, help the unforunates, and twist the legislators to fund our scam – just give them 10%. Then again having a conscience and critical thinking isn’t condusive to living on the dark side with demonic, possessive, intrusive spirits. Carry on!
To Brian,
All illegal refugees bad, legal refugees okay. All free public transportation bad, there is no free public transportation, taxpayers pick up the tab. Public transportation paid by the user good. Most liberal comments bad, common sense good!
RE: “….other refugees in the area still struggle.”
Holy crap. These folks won the golden ring. An all expense paid resettlement into one of the most desirable areas in North America. And they have the nerve to complain about the language barrier, walking, and work options?
Here’s a hint. How about putting capitalism into use by pooling money to create a Persian language cab company. Alternatively, my Give-A-Crap meter is pegged at zero.
I would rather converse with someone who does their best to speak american,it ain’t english we speak, than to cater to their native tongue
Free? Correction, it’s TAXPAYER FUNDED!
I am with most of the others that commented. FREE everything? How many ‘real’ Americans does this affect and all the sudden it’s an issue because ppl from another country came here? When does this insanity STOP? ALL TAX PAYER FUNDED ALONG WITH THE FREE WELFARE, while driving brand new cars! Can any of them speak English or was that done in their native language and the taxpayers paid for that too like the drivers lic manual. How about all those progressives who gave themselves a 56 or 57K raise, donate their wages to help out. THE TAX PAYERS ARE OVERWORKED, OVER BURDEN, unless we can unburden what has been burden. Like the passage of time. VT can’t even sustain the Americans that live here, but here we go again, more taxes, more handouts! Golden rides for everyone but the working man
I don’t know where this stops, but I know where it started with our bleeding-heart governor. How many 3rd world refugees has he brought into this state? Never mind the cultural and language barriers, these people will not blend into America. Apparently, they are complaining already. We have been complaining about numerous issues and nothing gets done for the people who pay for these so-called leaders who are supposed to represent us and not the world’s poor people. Like Brian above, how many of these 3rd world people are living at his house? A typical liberal trying to shame the rest of us for the same thing he isn’t doing himself. But he feels good about himself for speaking up.
If this program is to continue, maybe implementing a fare would help this service continue without burdening taxpayers with yet another expense a lot can’t afford, especially when our legislature continues to tax and “fee” us to death.