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.
As a cooperator from Philadelphia, I can indeed say that those of us co-op advocates from across the country are interested in the news about co-ops. This letter certainly helps fill in some blanks, and I must say that I am a proponent of policy governance as a means...