EAST DUMMERSTON — This article could've been titled, “Area property holders maintain: People whose basic needs go unmet are the real problem here” or perhaps, “Locals with power to selectboard: We wish powerless would just stay quiet.”
I disagree that business owners' discomfort with “panhandlers” can be solved by educating poor people about available resources. The solution is organizing to end a system that creates poverty.
The folks I know who seek shelter, food, and other basic needs often already know about the wait lists, lack of housing vouchers, and other roadblocks awaiting them when they enter the increasing pool of people seeking institutional resources as a solution to the poverty they experience.
These are people who might not have a phone, yet they are asked to call a local housing resource every single day to stay on the wait list for a place in a shelter. A failure to call daily can get you booted.
This is one example of the many barriers for folks with little to zero financial resources. And illuminating these barriers is in no way meant to disparage the nonprofit organizations who are doing vital damage control work to help. I loved the quote from Groundworks board member Tom Zopf. Organizations like Groundworks have finite access to money, food, and housing. Nonprofit financial resources are decreasing during this political climate of rapidly advancing privatization.
The narrative presented by the business community in this article does not challenge that climate. The Downtown Alliance's perspective, particularly, is troubling. Their “fear” about driving away customers could be better characterized as “discomfort,” particularly when in contrast with the fear of no food on the table, the fear of no table.
I'm grateful to the author for exposing how far we have to come in this “progressive” community in centering the needs of the most vulnerable residents, not the most powerful.
I'm grateful that the Selectboard won't pursue anti-begging ordinances and that the police are disinterested in further criminalizing the poor, which is a divergence from police practices elsewhere.
But is that the limit to which we can imagine ending poverty?
In a county with abundant second-home ownership, why aren't there resources for all of us? Is wealth inherently immoral when neighbors are starving? Is capitalism inversely related to life, liberty, and happiness?
“Panhandling” is not a problem caused by those experiencing poverty. A system that creates concentrated wealth and increases poverty is the problem that “panhandlers” express.
The people who need outreach are those with property, power, and money, who are reframing the problem of poverty as a problem for them. “Panhandlers” are the outreach team, educating the rest of this community about reality. That may be uncomfortable, but it is vital.
Thank you to The Root Social Justice Center (of which I am a part), Brattleboro Solidarity, ACT for Social Justice, Vermont Workers' Center, panhandlers, and all who do vital outreach. Wherever this education occurs, I'll be there with bells on.