In 1995, Chicago experienced a heat wave in which the temperature reached 106 degrees, which translated into a heat index of 126, the temperature that the body felt. Within a week, the streets were buckling, the power grids failed, and over 700 people were dead.
By all accounts, the cause of death was the heat.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) arrived on the scene, as is their custom when there is a significant mortality event, and worked with the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office (CCMEO), jointly concluding that the deaths were the result of hyperthermia.
In other words, the heat was the cause of death.
But, along came Eric Klinenberg, who conducted a “social autopsy” and discovered that while it was uniformly hot throughout Chicago, the deaths occurred in clusters, which indicated that there were other factors to be considered, not just the heat.
Klinenberg dug into the anatomy of the metropolis to conduct a “social autopsy,” which examined the social, political, and institutional factors at play that allowed or caused the heat wave to result in such a tragic loss of life.
Klinenberg’s findings can be refined into this simple analysis: the connected communities survived while the disconnected communities experienced the tragic loss of life, with victims dying behind locked doors and sealed windows, out of contact with friends, family, community groups, and public agencies.
Connectivity was the factor that made all the difference.
The lesson learned here is one that can be applied to Vermont’s housing crisis.
By all accounts, the agreed-upon problem is that there is not enough housing. The experts grind numbers and count families and conclude that there is simply not enough housing to house all Vermonters in need of housing today, let alone all of the Vermonters that will need additional housing in the future.
It’s a simple determination that seems plausible, when there are people in need of housing and they can’t find the housing, it must be because there is a shortage of housing!
But, just like in Chicago, the simplest determination is not necessarily the correct determination. I contend that in Vermont, just as in Chicago, the most accurate determination of the most significant factor in the crisis is connectivity.
Amid Vermont’s housing crisis, seven state departments and agencies have a piece of the state’s housing policy and programming, all working independently and with their own standards, rules, policies, and strategies.
Amid Vermont’s housing crisis, there are several public housing authorities, all with their own strategies for administering the federal housing funds that come through their respective fingers, all of them with their own standards, rules, and policies.
There are 22 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Rutland County alone that play an active role in housing, or attempting to house, those in need of housing. All of the NGOs compete for the same funds, guarding their budgets and headcount in siloes, which results in 22 mini-housing forces, all of them with their own standards, rules, policies, and strategies.
If there was ever a situation that screamed for connectivity, this is it.
The Vermont Housing Finance Agency, in its Housing Assessment study commissioned for the Rutland Regional Planning Commission, determined that there are 2,413 vacant units in Rutland County.
How can there be so many vacant units while the state is actively debating the funding of the motels to house the families in need of housing?
Using Rutland County as a starting point and assuming that the other counties have half as many vacant units, one can estimate that there are in excess of 15,000 vacant units in the State of Vermont, and yet somehow seven state agencies, a dozen or more public housing authorities, and an abundant supply of NGOs are unable to locate housing for their clients.
I contend, vociferously, that the State of Vermont’s greatest opportunity to address the current and future housing crisis is to get connected, to break down the silo walls, and to work together. I realize that’s a stretch, but it’s a significant dose of reality to call out the current lay of the land and to challenge those in authority to put connectivity at the forefront of any current or proposed housing strategy.
To that end, Partners in Housing is working in Rutland County to connect Housers, Wrappers, Supporters, and the Government with a united mission of ensuring that all Vermonters have access to safe and healthy housing. Partners in Housing meets on the last Friday of each month at 1 p.m.
For more info, email: [email protected].
