Instead of dumping $30-$50 million every few months…
by Rob Roper
It seems like we are enduring a constant kerfuffle over whether or not to extend the now ended federally funded, Covid-emergency “hotels for homeless” program with state tax dollars. Lots of them. Twenty million here, thirty million there…. The latest House budget proposal allocates a whopping $50 million. Clearly Vermonters can’t afford this. But, as Ronald Reagan warned, there is nothing so close to immortal as a government program.
So, instead of pouring out hundreds of millions of dollars year after year to put up these 1500 individuals/families in a bunch of derelict motel-no-tells, how about we spend a fraction of that just one time to everyone’s benefit and be done with the problem. How? Buy these people a cruise ship!
I did the research!
We can get one listed on Yacht World for $33 million. That’s just the asking price. Surely the state can use its influence to get an even better deal. It can accommodate over 3500 people, and according to the description in the classified ad,
Most recently refurbished in 2016, this 880 foot luxury cruise ship welcomes up to 2,767 guests and 912 crew members.
Passengers[Those experiencing homelessness] can enjoy a rock climbing wall, a basketball court and a casino, plus four bars and multiple lounges. Guests can also choose from six dining venues. Ocean View and Suite cabins, all of which come outfitted with flat-screen TVs and minibars. Thanks to a dazzling, top to bottom renovation, this popular 880’ cruise ship is more majestic than ever.Guests[Those experiencing homelessness] will enjoy a newly remodeled pool deck, 2 pools, 4 hot tubs, expanded Day Spa & Fitness Center, plus tastefully refurbished staterooms, featuring luxurious bedding and eye-popping flat-screen TVs and more.
There IS more! Such as on-board medical/hospital facilities, a library, a conference center, laundry, and shopping venues.
What’s not to love? Park the thing in Burlington Bay or Shelburne Bay and leave them to it. I looked at the nautical charts and there’s plenty of space to accommodate the S.S. Bernie’s Mittens’ 28-foot draft. My idea; I get to name the boat!
Now, obviously the on-board Johnny Rockets and Café Latte-tudes aren’t going to continue operating following this change of mission for The Mittens, as she will affectionately be known, nor will the kiosks selling tacky clothing, commemorative key chains, and suntan lotion. But that infrastructure can be re-purposed and managed by the residents (or others, I suppose) for their own entrepreneurial enterprises. Open a convenience store… a salon… laundry service… a snack shack to serve the community. Put the inmates in charge of the operation and have them be responsible for the upkeep of their floating neighborhood.
If this idea works, great! We will have saved Vermont taxpayers tens of millions of dollars if not more, and we will have successfully provided not just shelter, but economic opportunities and the infrastructure for on-location support facilities for folks currently living in distress. If it doesn’t work and they end up just trashing the place, we can always take the thing out into the middle of the lake and turn it into an artificial reef for the benefit of marine life and SCUBA tourism — after disembarking the residents, of course. Maybe on the New York side.
The S.S. Bernie’s Mittens is currently berthed in Port Washington, New York. I bet we could have it here by Monday. Then maybe everyone could just shut the bleep up about this issue and can move along to solving the property tax crisis before the rest end up experiencing homelessness too.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer who has been involved with Vermont politics and policy for over 20 years. This article reprinted with permission from Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics, robertroper.substack.com
Categories: Commentary, Housing, State Government
What an Excellent idea Rob! Love it! What could be finer, than to be on an ocean liner!
Our idea of who is ‘homeless’ and why drives what we consider ‘acceptable’ (as in I done my duty by God and country and my fellow man – virtue virtue virtue signalling) for housing those who have none. We justify these attitudes and stereotypes by pointing to the smallest of demographic data that blames the poor for thefts, murders, and drugs in the area.
This is the age-old patriarchal trope of ‘blame the victim’ – and it works because most of us are too lazy to question who benefits from that kind of language.
It should be clear by now that as the system exists now, no one really wants to fix the housing problems (its too complicated to consider EVERY person’s needs when you can lump’em together and tell’em beggers can’t be choosers (( see how that works?))).
The solutions as they stand are NOT…solutions. They are not even bandaids. They are free handouts to the biggest benefits of the global fascist cabal, and is a land grab especially here in Vermont, removing any chance that the people who for generations have lived in Vermont, Cannot. Anymore.
Four walls and a roof, heat, food to eat — and we’ve millions of acres of beautiful land where any soul can heal amidst God’s benificence… its simple and should be kept so.
The middle man – he who benefits the most — is in charge.
Kind of like putting engineers in charge of vision they are incapable of envisioning because they like straight lines, and being told what to do…
Housing is a moral issue, and its a systemic issue that reflects our attitudes of just who ARE the useless eaters, how we see ourselves reflected in others, and how willing we are to fix what IS broke, and leave what ain’t, alone.
YOUR solutions for housing do NOT solve MINE.
You’ve never asked what I need to be safe and housed. Its not what YOU think I need. I am self-aware, and know what I need. You. Do. Not.
(that to those legislating choice right out of my life to where I now live in a prison without choices — in a supposedly free world).
If the cruise ship idea ever floats for land-locked Vermont, that is no different than shipping our prisoners out of state to be housed by the American private prisons incorporated — where any illusion of freedom is removed, and profit and cost cutting is above all. And in international waters, look ma – no hands (no oversight). I wonder how many bodies would get dumped overboard in the still of the night…
Dismal solutions beget dismal outcomes that spell disaster for anyone who isn’t ‘part of the demographic’ that makes it easy to rubber stamp the solution…
Did I lose you yet?
Homelessness is a cultural problem, a systemic problem, and the result of what we accept. Look in the mirror. There but for the grace of God, literally…
Our housing issue is COMPLETELY man made, sustained by those in office to protect their jobs and those who benefit from the insane handouts.
It is completely a zoning issue, all of which are handed down from Agenda 21….they are not home-grown idea by any means.
Our forefathers solved this problem easily, outhouse, log cabin, wood stove. None of these are allowed within our state. The right to live is not allowed, animals have more rights than citizens.
A misty knoll chicken is treated far more humanely than your children. They aren’t forced to take injections, they are given wholesome food and not subject to perverse sexual ideas the defy nature, God and science from whence they were hatched.
We don’t like poor people that’s our issue and our solution is so extravagant that poor people come from out of state to take up the freebies. Poor people have cell phones and talk with their friends. Free hotel rooms in Vermont! Drug dealers are so open and accepted the feel comfortable putting it on their arrest warrant as occupation, when they are arrested.
Crime really does pay in Vermont, just shop lift in different counties now, a minor inconvenience and you can fence $1,000 of tools on Face book every week.
This isn’t a coincidence. It’s not bad management. It’s on purpose. From Wokepedia…
Cloward–Piven strategy
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This article is about a plan to force the US government to implement guaranteed minimum income. It is not to be confused with Communist revolution, White genocide conspiracy theory, Cultural Marxism, or Kalergi plan.
Too funny……they lie right to your face. Guaranteed income is communism, is marxism…further in wokepedia
The Cloward–Piven strategy is a political strategy outlined in 1966 by American sociologists and political activists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. The strategy aims to utilize “militant anti poverty groups” to facilitate a “political crisis” by overloading the welfare system via an increase in welfare claims, forcing the creation of a system of guaranteed minimum income and “redistributing income through the federal government”.[
The collapse is planned, always was, always is in a color revolution.
I love this solution with is brilliant and cheeky!
The appealing thing about a watercraft is that it comes with a moat…
They have spent enough money to buy every single homeless person a house. Disgusting government criminals! There are probably millions of different ways they could have spent that money better, but it’s not their money and there is absolutely zero accountability to those who waste it.
I’m fine with voluntarily helping people that wish to succeed to get back on their feet. I’m not fine with government’s violent theft of working people’s money to subsidize and reward failure. When you reward failure, you will get more failure.
Get on the boat!
Reagan would talk one way and do the opposite. People will never stop falling for the political mouth. If any politician did what they said they were going to do we might be in a better place.
“In 1980, the last year of free-spending Jimmy Carter the federal government spent $591 billion. In 1986, the last recorded year of the Reagan administration, the federal government spent $990 billion, an increase of 68%” – Murray N. Rothbard
One problem. If Vermont has 1500 homeless and the ship accommodates 3500 you’re just putting out the dinner bell for 2000 more vagrants…I mean homeless to migrate to Vermont.
It’s 1500 families — some individuals, but much of that 1500 represents multiple people.
Rob, a doablly astounding plan. You brought a double meaning to cast off.
This article shows Vermont wanting to house the homeless in hotels to the tune of $50 million dollars next year. So, Rob Roper has proposed to spend $33 million for buy them all a yacht for 3500 people.
How much does it cost to build a WHOLE HOTEL ?? I’d bet even less.
HUD tried building “homeless hotels” in many major American cities in the sixties and seventies to solve the problem of inadequate housing opportunities…they were referred to as “projects”. Some have since had to be torn down after becoming lawless, ungovernable hellholes, run by criminal gangs and where the police could not dare tread. The decent people living there were terrorized. Do we repeat this mistake? Burlington has come close with the mismanagement of Decker Towers. Perhaps Vermont elected officials and advocacy groups need to realize that the more free accommodations they build for those who claim under the honor system to not have anywhere to go, that more and more people will migrate here to take advantage.
The Love Boat…soon will be making another runnnnn….
Budget bloat….we promise something for everyoneeeeeeee……
More like a “Ship of Fools…”
Rob’s idea is not cynicism. A rational and open-minded committee could study this idea and determine if it is a viable option.
Aside from the accoutrements and comforts, the residents would be in a central location and available for council, training, medical assistance and confidence-building. Some might become the paid crew providing the needed services and care.
Some of the above comments are imponderable and lacking any sensitivity for those made homeless by no fault of theirs. Domestic violence. Unlawful evictions, Substance abuse going untreated.
Others are jaw-flapping complaints by complainers of everything ‘marxist, gubment, and giving to those who have nothing’.
Rob, take this on as a practical idea. I will keep encouraging you.
No one though his idea was cynicism. Although, I disagree, while some people are forced into homelessness, others select this option. People who are mentally ill should be in treatment, but unfortunately civil rights groups forced mentally ill people on to the he streets in the name of liberation when they demanded that mental health instructions be closed. There is he
Lp for people who want help.
Christine Stone, I agree. Homeless persons on the streets of the Nation’s capitol were shipped out of St. Elizabeth’s by do-gooders who were bought into an unfulfilled promise of half-way houses. And, when people get used to something, it is more difficult to correct.
Do you want to see Rob’s proposal come to reality?
yes/// great idea/// place two vessels out side burlington with five thousand people each and every two weeks open up the septic tank and let it flow into lake champlain//// now maybe that was not a good idea////
mday, can you, at least once, offer a constructive comment!!!
I think it referencing a modest proposal from years ago, to show the aburdity….back then it was eating the young children of england.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal
It was similar to my proposal for affordable town hall in Waitsfield, which lite up-Front Porch Forum like a Christmas tree…..and soon later was my banishment. Telling the truth if highly frowned upon.
i thought that the boat was a great idea, but some times you have to get real////// there are penalties for bad decisions//// yes, lets get a committee of one hundred and eighty house and senators to study this full time this summer/// if you gave a homeless person two acres of land ,what would they do with it//// grow pot///
My take…set up a number of poor farms with dorms where the rule is ,You wanna eat,you gotta work! The housed must work to grow their own food,slop the hogs,milk the cows,make the butter and cheese,tend to the chickens,grow the corn,spuds and onions,squash,grains,bake bread,build the buildings,babysit the kids,wash the clothing and bedding, make the bedding, in other words you want to eat,here are the tools ,he is an overseer to teach, go make food and here are the tools to tend to your own needs, or leave for another state. It’s the only approach makes sense to me and that goes for most elected officials too. Gravy train time is over,go help yourself and quit sucking that taxpayer tit.
Sounds like Mississippi, circa 1859.
Make them work, without pay, for their survival even though some are victims of domestic abuse or evicted from a tenement building fire.
John, William, I wonder if there is a practical 21st century middle ground solution. What would that look like?
Guy, Thank you for the question.
Middle ground solution must have a long term future because the homeless are slowly being accepted as the new norm. Motels are remote and not a solution. There is no transportation, employment or council. Displaced families, with children, need support to assure there will not be a family legacy of underachievement and dependence.
Rob’s idea is a rational option that deserves conversation: a central location, nearby resources and fixed costs. Residents can earn stipend for providing needed services and begin to regain self respect and a plan for the future. Vermont sent soldiers to the south to end slavery. That was motivated by a conviction that it was immoral and dehumanizing.
By using that motive, the private sector and religious community can collaborate to establish a ‘central’ venue for those individuals who need help to re-establish their lives. That will take time and money but not from the Treasury.
Vermont Daily Chronicle can be the voice to build on Rob’s idea. And, you might invite him to join you in an ongoing discussion to get your readers to realize homelessness may be a choice for some, but it cannot be a choice for Vermont.
Peace.
There are,no doubt, exceptions…if we only had common sense leadership the exceptions could be dealt with fairly…but the leadership is in La La land for the most part.
In this case, taking care of those should be done at the local level, where the local leadership would know if the exceptions are real cases of hard luck ,and not some freeloader sopping up the gravy.
I like the Swiss system, if someone goes on welfare, the government first goes to that someone’s family, if they have money, they must pay for that support, if the family has no means to do so, then the government makes the town that party resides in pay for the welfare, so if the town fathers ,who would know the party firsthand, sees if it is a con, riding the gravy train, the welfare is denied, but if granted, the person helped must pay every red cent back, when they are back on their feet. There are programs to help them get back on their feet too. There is also a lot of social stigma related to this, so as a nation, if you go on the dole, you are looked down upon…this system works well, and results in very few if any, freeloaders.
If the Vermont leadership were wise they should look at the Swiss system as a model to follow and might contact the American Swiss Foundation HQ in NY for info on their system or the Swiss Embassy in Washington is a good place to start but I doubt the left wants common sense but rather a population who is dependent on the centralized government, from cradle to the grave, with a permanent ruling class in power running it but for me that best way forward in today’s world is to get active,get every one of your family and friends to the voting place and vote out every last liberal/progressive/regressive/leftist/socialist/Sandersneista…a clean sweep,so to speak,then we can rebuild the government based on common sense but lacking these moves Vermont and the country stands no chance of surviving as a free country within the next couple of decades…it will all come crumbling down. My 2 cents and no this is not the deep South from decades ago talking.
William, lets keep this thread going.
I was ready to give your idea about the Swiss approach a fair shake. Until I read the next paragraphs of hyperbole. It was not useful. Lets stick with the real issue of accepting homelessness without a solution or remedy.
Please reply.