BRATTLEBORO — The current housing situation in Vermont is an absolute joke. The overall vacancy availability in the state has dropped to as low as 0.5% in recent months.
How did we let this happen?
There are several factors involved. They mainly stem from out-of-staters' panic-buying properties in the early stages of the pandemic, only to decide they don't need them after all. They've become Airbnb rentals. So now there are many, many, many rooms or houses that you can rent or reserve short-term, but very few long-term.
This also falls on the state of Vermont for not enforcing more control over the landlords, who have now raised the rents so high that the tiny number of properties that are available are not affordable for anyone who isn't a high-profile lawyer, doctor, or other professional making several thousand dollars a month.
Plus, we have a governor who somehow continues to get re-elected despite doing nothing but vetoing everything that shows up on his desk.
Even those hard-working lower-to-middle-class citizens who could afford a room if it were actually at a reasonable price cannot find anything because there is nothing available.
It is so sad seeing posts from single parents and their children on the verge of homelessness due to the lack of housing.
This used to be a welcoming state flourishing with opportunity, but it is now at one of its lowest points in history - without even mentioning the ongoing opioid epidemic and uptick in violence and domestic crime.
Get it together, Vermont!
Write to your local officials and demand change. And please vote Gov. Phil Scott out of office next election cycle!