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TheTowerBard t1_j7pjryv wrote

Reply to comment by 1010lala1010lala in Vermont’s rates of homelessness are (almost) the worst in the country by DaddyBobMN

Trying to look at this issue on a local level is fairly pointless. It is a national crisis. Homeless people are migratory. I'm sure there were plenty of folks who hopped on a bus and headed south for the winter, or west to California. It's what they do, and then they usually try to get back to their "local netwrok" when they can.

We also know there are plenty of folks from neighboring states who have landed in hotel rooms here because they couldn't get help where they were (to be clear, I am personally very ok with this).

Taking the count in January is actually fairly idiotic, imo. This is useless data that serves no purpose other than taking a snapshot of January. They need to do it again in the summer and get people out to the campsites and other places folks make their homes. Then we could compare those numbers and get a better idea of the actual issue here, but only doing a count in the dead of winter is silly.

Again, the most important point is that this is a national issue and we need to discuss it and address it as such.

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Necessary_Cat_4801 t1_j7pq2ro wrote

Unsheltered people are counted in January, campsites are visited.

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TheTowerBard t1_j7pqath wrote

That doesn’t change the fact that most homeless folks are migratory and hop a bus to warmer places for the winter. Doing the count only in January and making any conclusions from it is very shortsighted.

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Stevo2979 t1_j7q3r4h wrote

The homeless population isn’t as migratory as you seem to believe. In my experience as someone who had been homeless and also worked for a nonprofit organization to help homeless people in central Vermont. Many would stay because they wanted to be close to there family, Stay close to where they work, or lack the means in order to move.

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TheTowerBard t1_j7q6hqb wrote

Oh absolutely. Most folks do try to stay closer to where they may have family, friends, any sort of network for as long as possible, and often come back if they need to go somewhere warmer for the winter. People in general tend to also prefer to be in places they are familiar with.

That said, about half of the homeless population in our country lives in 3 places, California, New York, and Florida. The majority of those folks are not from those places originally. They migrate there because of the weather or available help/community.

While it is true that most folks TRY to stay where they have a network, they also tend to eventually burn bridges and use up available resources and they wind up moving on. Others, like yourself, stay put and eventually lift themselves out of it. I also think a lot of folks underestimate the way homeless folks utilize trains and busses to get around the country. I even met a dude from Bennington while doing outreach in Santa Monica on that cliff where everyone camps. He told me his family stopped offering any help (shelter) after a while so he made his way out there to embrace living the rest of his days on the beach (this is what he told me).

If you want to drop a link to the org your work with in central VT, I would love to donate and volunteer myself. I have done homeless outreach in NY, FL, and Los Angeles and would love to get involved here.

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Stevo2979 t1_j7qdzi1 wrote

Funny enough, I don't live in Vermont nor work with that organization anymore because of the reasons you stated above and I even took a train to were I currently live.

Anyway if you do want to help here's their web page; https://www.anotherwayvt.org/

Their main objective is to provide support for those whom have suffered from mental illness but they also help those who are homeless since it is such a huge problem and there's a bit of a correlation between the two.

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TheTowerBard t1_j7qfdzn wrote

Huge correlation. Thanks for the link! I’ll check them out and go from there. Access to mental healthcare is a major issue and something I am passionate about as I have many loved ones who have struggled / are struggling with getting care in VT.

I wish you well wherever you landed!

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Stevo2979 t1_j7qik6v wrote

Thank you. I wish the same for you as well and your love ones. :)

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ceiffhikare t1_j7q60o1 wrote

> this is a national issue and we need to discuss it and address it as such.

Well yes and no. You are right in that it is a nation-wide problem and needs national scale resources to get solved. Id prob agree that some work at and reform at the federal level desperately needs to happen too. The solutions are going to have to come from as close to the local level as possible though imo.

I have to wonder what happened to those building trades hs projects of the 90's and before? Did those programs stop? I hate to even mention it because it reeks of exploitation but has anyone considered bringing back the 'poor farms' of yester-year? These are solutions that can only come from local action backed by federal funding.

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TheTowerBard t1_j7q6yi0 wrote

I'm not familiar with the program you mention from the 90s, but will check it out.

Otherwise, we seem to be on the same page. Yes, we need federal funding/support but of course the action part of it happens locally.

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ceiffhikare t1_j7qln8e wrote

There used to be yearly or bi yearly high school building trades projects that would use hs students to build a house complete from start to finish. Granted these programs were not present in every school district i went to but many had them. idk the details of those programs in particular but friends and acquaintances were in them and it always struck me even back then that this should be widespread to combat homelessness. We could do a half dozen tiny homes in every county seat for the cost of a few dozen hotel vouchers.

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TheTowerBard t1_j7qt9df wrote

Makes a whole lot of sense to me. Also teaches good home repair skills, I’d imagine. Something we all could hopefully use.

One major hurdle I see though is where to build. Towns, counties, states, etc will have to buy the land this happens on I’d imagine. Not too many people are donating land to help others these days.

Though, building tiny homes on trailers might fix this as they can be moved when agreements about the land they are on shifts.

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