On April 23, Gov. Peter Shumlin came to Melrose Terrace in West Brattleboro to honor the residents there for their “resilience and courage” in dealing with flooding from Tropical Storm Irene last August.
While it was fitting that the residents, many of whom were displaced for months by the storm, were honored with a plaque from Shumlin, a more meaningful gesture would be additional state assistance for the housing complex for low-income elderly or disabled tenants.
Irene wreaked havoc with Melrose Terrace and threatened nearby Hayes Court. And while Glen Park, the mobile home community that sits between the two facilities, is not a BHA property, it suffered the most damage of all.
Just days before the ceremony, the Brattleboro Housing Authority, which owns Melrose, announced that it would find a safer place to move current tenants within the next three years.
Meanwhile, the BHA said it has shelved a plan to tear down the aging apartment buildings at the 70-unit Hayes Court and replace them with a more modern and code-compliant 36-unit complex.
All of this activity seems driven by the bureaucracy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has been battling with the BHA over the extent of flood damage at Melrose since the storm.
BHA executive director Chris Hart said the three-year process is ambitious, but not unrealistic. But many questions remain.
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The bulk of the BHA's housing is located in a flood plain. Where can a replacement complex for the 150 units at Hayes and Melrose be built, and who will pay for it?
There is a shortage of low- to moderate-income housing in Brattleboro. The federal government has drastically cut funding for public housing over the past three decades. Our state government has few resources to undertake building a new home to replace the 150 units at Hayes and Melrose. And the private sector has little interest in building housing for low- and moderate income renters.
The BHA's good intentions are admirable, as is the agency's commitment to getting Melrose Terrace residents out of harm's way. But before the BHA decides to start moving people around, there needs to be a plan for a place to move them to.
And that reality is going to take a bigger commitment on the state and federal levels to expand the housing stock in Brattleboro.