This commentary is by Bob Orleck, a retired pharmacist and former Vermont assistant attorney general under Vermont Attorney General Jerome Diamond.
Vermont has a critical homeless problem and there seems to be no adequate and financially sustainable solutions on the horizon.
It was not always so.
Bob Orleck
Many years ago, Vermont engaged in the movement toward community-based mental health services instead of properly maintaining their institutions such as the Vermont State Hospital and the Brandon Training School. For many of the residents of those facilities, those closings brought an abrupt loss of their home, and we will never know how many died as a result of those closures.
Now 30 or 40 years later, it seems that the only solution we hear much about for the homeless, most of whom have mental health or drug abuse issues, is a stay at a hotel, bus tickets out of town or a prison cell. That’s what happens when you tear down institutions and have nothing that replaces the remedial and housing services they provided for those who are being turned out.
Such a non-caring approach to societal problems injured and destroyed many people. It has permeated all areas of our life today. The more outrageous and destructive an idea might be, the more it is embraced by the far left and the deceived of our state and nation.
From traditional family values to Christian faith, those things that our nation relied on to become the most wonderful place on earth, have now and are continually being torn down with devastating consequences. Drug addiction, suicide, mental health deterioration, crime and disrespect for life and values are beyond epidemic. Our nation is on the verge of collapse, but citizens carelessly ignore how bureaucrats and even elected leaders are leading them over the cliff.
There is “cause and effect,” and it should be obvious by now that the paths we are on will lead to destruction and death. Time is short. There must be a revival across our land. The false teaching and disregard for the way our God established this miracle of America is without doubt taking us down the same road that led to the end of many past civilizations. The Bible clearly describes our condition today in Proverbs 14:12. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
True North Editors should sharpen their pencils and be more careful with headlines.
Mr. Orleck did not say there were ‘No adequate solutions to homeless problem on the horizon’. He said ‘…there seems to be no adequate and financially sustainable solutions on the horizon.’
And then Mr. Orleck goes on to describe solutions that worked in the past.
‘Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.’
The ‘solutions’ to this problem are infinite. The problem is that ‘’the State’ can only function in a one-size-fits-all management scheme.
The first thing to do is eliminate the State programs that are designed to benefit the program providers, instead of benefiting those individuals the programs are ostensibly intended to help. It’s all about incentives.
‘Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.’
But if I’m in the fish business, I make more money when ‘the State’ buys fish it doesn’t need and gives it away in the name of ‘progress’.
Enact squatters rights as there are many empty homes and camps that no one is living in I bet there’s more than enough abandoned properties for the homeless to have a home. I lost my home to a no cause eviction. New landlord turned it into a room rental 1000 a month with everything included but you share a kitchen and bathroom. He needed money to send his son to Berkeley in. M.,
Fantastic article.
This one here is also echoing the writers sentiments:
This 10 year police office in California is calling out Gavin Newsom for many of the same reasons stated here:
The Homeless crisis is really an addiction crisis, a mental health crisis.. the Homeless crisis of the RESULT of these.
He goes on to explain that all these “Do Gooders” have robbed society of all the tools we once had that forced people into treatment- which is often their only shot a survival, at getting the help they need.
Great article here, it’s short and very worth the read.
https://redstatewatcher.com/aggregate.asp?id=216276
Hey Laura, can you comment on the Sununu visit we are getting? Was he the leader for the trifecta in NH???
It’s on another article in TNR…..
Use the old unused Windsor prison as the new affordable housing units. Aka..homeless shelter. The state forks out over a quarter of a million dollars per year to maintain the place…why not use it…
Because it doesn’t solve the problem and you strap the taxpayers to another worthless attempt that solves nothing. LBJ’s great society built the projects and filled them with low income people of color. With no ownership or incentive for the the people to improve their situation, the so-called projects turned into crime infested, drug dealing centers and the properties were destroyed by the tenets. Eventually they were all demolished and billions wasted. Read some history, throwing money at the perpetual abusers becomes perpetual waste solving nothing. Mental illness is not solved by housing someone with no professional help. Who will maintain the old prison after remolding it to state codes. And who will control the activities of the residents?
They created this mess and they can’t fix it. Or, they make you think they want to fix it by making it worse. Now taxpayers are supposed to take care of everyone by paying for hotels, needles, drugs, surgeries for dysphoria and whatever else to support the problems they created. In the mean time they blame suicide on guns and crime on law abiding people and divert attention to healing a planet that’s not sick. Then they scare the children into believing the earth will die in 10 years, that they can change their biological sex with harmful drugs and surgery and if they are white they have to hate themselves. This is only part of it. Young girls have to let boys (who have been convinced by insane adults that they are girls) into their sports, locker rooms and bathrooms. We are living in the idiot apocalypse. Evil has taken over what was once good. These are like other progressive (elite, in their mind) adults that pushed eugenics to cleanse society and lobotomies to heal the mentally ill. These are dark times that have been created by a small minority of people in certain places with lots of money and the support of the corrupt corporate media combined with an educational system designed to dumb down America. This will not end well.