PURPOSE
Create a policy model for emergency housing in RVs on public and private land and start such housing on BCS land. The policies will promote police substations, emergency homeless shelters, rental rooms, and rental apartments. The project recognizes the extenuating shortage of construction labor.
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Special Notice Edition! Read all about it!
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████ Fast Emergency Housing ████
BCS is offering Emergency Housing in RVs (EHRV) and changing rules so that people can rent out space for RVs on private land in town. Property owners can donate space or get extra income.
Brattleboro officially needs 500 rental units ASAP. Officials around Vermont have plans for big housing construction projects and for new ways to pay for them. But big construction projects take years. They will be of no help to homeless people this winter and no help to other people moving here to live. Besides that, there is a shortage of construction workers because of labor shortage, and no place for them to live, because there is a housing shortage. So, big projects are a short-sighted plan.
EHRV is a good simple plan. RVs can be complete separate rental units, or they can be like a detached bedroom. Creating one can be as quick as buying a car. People in non-profit organizations around town and people in town government have been very helpful, and we invite everyone to join us and develop these new policies. BCS’ first RV will probably come this week. It’s as cool as a baby elephant and deserves a name.
info@brattleborocommonsense.org
brmse.org
████ Prevent Unfair Evictions and Rent Hikes ████
Brattleboro Common Sense (BCS) is starting a petition drive for Fair Evictions and Rents Law (FERL). This will be a charter amendment to prevent unfair evictions and to limit rent increases. Some people will remember this proposal was submitted to the selectboard in December of 2020. We are disappointed that the board has taken no action on the issue of fair rents and evictions. But we have revised our amendment and teamed up with RAD, who are campaigning state-wide. Now the board can get in gear on the issue. Visit Brattleboro.org and ask the selectboard to place our charter amendment on the ballot for a public vote ASAP and to approve it temporarily as an “emergency ordinance”. BCS is also offering Emergency Housing in RVs (EHRV) and changing rules so that people can rent out space for RVs on private land in town.
info@brattleborocommonsense.org
brmse.org
radvt.org
Kurt Daims, exec
brmse.org
STATUS 202305010
We are low on funds and time. We have at least three “trials” pending, and we may prevail, but for us amateurs the legal work is scary and exhausting. We have (since before this case) been seeking legal counsel pro bono and by the hour, contacting maybe a hundred attorneys, and they are all booked up or unsuited. Some even say they admire BCS’ work but won’t represent us against government.
SUMMARY / REPORT 20230508
We have started a policy model to address the housing shortage for emergency shelter in RVs at our corporate HQ on privately owned land in Brattleboro Vermont. Currently four people live in the RVs. Town authorities are prosecuting us for technical violations of zoning regulations and housing codes, threatening to exact huge fines, and take RVs and home. We believe the prosecution is fraudulent, malicious, and prejudicial.
OFFICER PREPARES FALSE EVIDENCE (link to video below) The officer did not “falsify” evidence. That would imply that he altered evidence already on record. What he did was claim evidence without basis in fact.
On February 7 Brattleboro officials came to inspect three “RVs” that are being used as emergency homeless shelters at BCS headquarters. Taking their leave, the health inspector said that homeless people would be safer sleeping in the snow, and the zoning administrator threatened to fine us $600 per day and confiscate the RVs and demanded we remove them to comply with town ordinances. We said we would not comply, and that the inspector’s judgement of safety was absurd. The temperatures had recently been 17 degrees below zero.
The only trouble is what’s stirred up by town officials. The people here are safe and clean. The health officer fabricated evidence in his inspection report and implied that we violate the law by allowing human waste in trash. (BTW, It’s not illegal.) See the video. He finds some unidentified object in a plastic bag in the trash, doesn’t look closely or sniff it (it’s frozen anyway). He takes no photograph or sample for testing, says that he is not an expert (“scientician”), but he will call it human waste. In his inspection report he says there is human waste throughout the yard and through the property and even exterior to the property, as if it’s overflowing, and that this means the whole shelter is unsanitary and dangerous. The Health Order of March 8 says we’ve violated human rights – it doesn’t accuse us, it lists this as a FACT, like the project is a Nazi death camp or something. The officer also considered the RVs dangerous because our electrician – a master electrician with thirty years experience – was not licensed in Vermont. The resulting prosecution is false, inflammatory and prejudicial, claiming on the false evidence that the vehicles are a public hazard. Town is forcing us to perform illegal evictions of our homeless people. and is threatening to confiscate the vehicles and land and asking questions about the private lives of people who live here and people who help us. We told town officials about the RVs four times since last June, even asking formally for a discussion on their agenda, and they said nothing. Now this matter that was beneath their attention a year ago is suddenly a health emergency.
( feces video link: — https://brattleborocommonsense.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Keir-feces-inspection-no-text-EHRV-0207.mp4 )
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