Vermonters still struggling with housing, medical costs (with video)

[TexasTowelie]

MORRISTOWN, Vt. (WCAX) Vermonters are continuing to struggle to afford housing and medical costs. That was the message Sen. Bernie Sanders heard over and over as he visited medical, dental and child care facilities Monday.

At the Lamoille Family Center in Morristown, caseworkers say homelessness is way above the state average. And many young adults are ending up homeless because they can't afford rent or can't find landlords willing to rent to them.

Sanders says he thinks the new Congress, which will have a Democratic-led House, may be more helpful than the last two years.

"In Lamoille County, the rate of homelessness is 29 percent. Statewide in Vermont for Reach Up participants, it's 9 percent. It's become a huge issue here and it's going to be a tough winter," said Angela Mendieta of the Lamoille Family Center.

Read more and watch video: https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Vermonters-still-struggling-with-housing-medical-costs-500316051.html

[janterry]

1. Jobs

Vermont needs jobs.
It's true there is no housing, even folks that can afford rent struggle to find apartments throughout the state.

But the biggest problem in VT is jobs (imo). I don't know how a state deals with that. How do you attract business to a very rural state? Or how do you help business grow organically, in a very rural state.

It's a hard issue.

[handmade34]

4. livable wage jobs...

low paying service jobs are still out there.

[janterry]

5. Does the tourist thing contribute to it?

I lived in FL for years and there were also low paying jobs, but also low cost housing. Here everything costs so much more (tradespeople make $40/hour for painting - for instance), our local supermarket pays a LOT more than in FL ($15/hour) and housing is - as far as I can see - over $1000/month. If you can find it (and it's sure scarce).

In FL you could pay 600 a month for a pretty nice place (I mean, pretty, modern apartment with washer/drier).

Anyway, just trying to figure the state out. I'm guess that out of state vacationers drive up prices?

[handmade34]

8. wish I had the answers

would love to solve the housing problem... especially Burlington and Montpelier, where my kids have typically wanted to live... though even smaller towns... my daughter just left yesterday to move to Arizona... she was working as a Ranger in Woodstock at Marsh-Billings but couldn't find suitable housing... she was renting a room in a families house and still struggled

in Montpelier, my son and girlfriend were paying almost $1000 each in a house they were sharing with one other person... they have opted to spend winters in US Virgin Islands still rebuilding from the hurricane...

the changes started back in the 70's... back to the land and then money coming in from NY, NJ and MA for second homes... and now house prices and taxes are for the most part untenable

it is a vicious cycle as we need people to stay but many young people can't afford to... I was hoping Christine Hallquist would win because I think she had a good handle on what is needed to make life better for us here...


the charts state $13-$15 as livable wage for Vermont and my experience is, that is not adequate for young people to start a life, rent/mortgage, taxes, student loans... and the minimum wage is $10.50


but I suppose these are all concerns in most of the nation...

[Squinch]

2. 29%???? That's appalling!

[TexasTowelie]

3. I believe that they meant that 29% percent of the participants in the family center were homeless.

You have to watch the video to get the correct context.

[Squinch]

6. Oh. Thank God. And thank you.

[janterry]

7. Here's the point in time statistic from last year

It's a very rural community.

Last year, the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness determined, based on a one-night census of Vermont’s homeless population, that 64 people in Lamoille County, almost half of them children, didn’t have a place to live.

https://www.stowetoday.com/news_and_citizen/news/local_news/help-for-homeless-starts-with-recognition/article_7b8450d8-17da-11e8-b82d-572e8c50f97a.html