ceiffhikare t1_j7q60o1 wrote on February 8, 2023 at 5:01 PM

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

> 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.

TheTowerBard t1_j7q6yi0 wrote on February 8, 2023 at 5:07 PM

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.

ceiffhikare t1_j7qln8e wrote on February 8, 2023 at 6:40 PM

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.

TheTowerBard t1_j7qt9df wrote on February 8, 2023 at 7:29 PM

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.