Let’s welcome all into our community

Those folks cared about their neighborhood. They started a community association to work on issues like safety, playgrounds, policing, relations with each other and the city government. I got involved in the community association, and before long, the longtime residents decided that they and I cared about the same things, that we liked each other, that we wanted our neighborhood to be inclusive.

My visiting friend, from her work on poverty, well understood my neighbors’ initial distrust and what was needed for it to go away.

She and I decided to take a walk. When we left my backyard, the house at First and Acoma became visible. “Oh, my goodness,” Linda said. “What a beautiful place!”

“Yes,” I replied. “It sure does raise our property values.”

“The owner even has a gardening service,” Linda said, referring to four- or five well-groomed men engaged in mowing, mulching, pruning and planting.

“No, they’re residents,” I said. “That’s a group home run by Sobriety House. Those guys are living there to change their lives. They work on it every day. It’s a beautiful place in our beautiful neighborhood.”

That small section of Denver was a welcoming community. It welcomed all kinds of people, all kinds of solutions.

Lamoille County, much bigger in space but not nearly as populated, faces many of the same issues as that urban neighborhood: addiction, unaffordability, homelessness. In his article in this publication on June 8, “Motel evictions are a wake-up call in the homelessness crisis,” Rev. Devon Thomas emphasized how housing is the key to solving so many of our community’s problems. Without providing housing first, we cannot resolve other issues.

We need to welcome housing solutions, not stand in the way of their development. We need affordable apartments, inclusive zoning, workforce housing, converted commercial space and other creative solutions. First and foremost, we need transitional housing to shelter people who have no home.

All proposed housing developments are scrutinized to ensure they conform legally before they are allowed to be operational. When individuals delay projects that benefit people and the surrounding community through appeals to zoning or to other agencies, those delays deny vulnerable people the comfort and security most of us enjoy. Delay is the deadliest form of denial. Let’s not do that.

Let’s welcome solutions of all kinds. Let’s welcome people in dire situations.

Similarly, I welcome you to share your thoughts, whether we have the same ideas or experiences.

Linda Romans

Stowe