On February 7 Brattleboro officials came to inspect three "RVs" that are being used in BCS' emergency housing project (EHRV) on Washington Street. Taking their leave, one inspector said that homeless people would be safer sleeping in the snow. Another official threatened to 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.

There is a huge inventory of motor homes and trailers sitting empty in parking lots . The purpose of our project is to show that RVs are a very inexpensive substitute for new construction to relieve the housing crisis. Property owners can rent out RVs as detached bedrooms; governments can create decentralized homeless shelters and mobile police stations . We brought this idea to town officials four times since early 2021. But instead of helping in any way, town officials have suddenly imposed $600-per day fines and are forcing us to perform illegal evictions of our homeless guests .

We believe the health inspector's Emergency Order was motivated by over-anxious neighbors and based on stereotypes of homeless people as filthy and dangerous. For example, the inspector saw some brown material in the trash, and said without even smelling it that he was not an expert but would report that it was feces. He took no sample for examination, but admitted that his concern incriminates parents putting baby diapers in trash cans.

BCS has filed an appeal and is bringing its rebuttal to the health inspection report to the town Selectboard on Tuesday, February 21st. The "trial" starts at 6:15pm at 230 Main Street and is interactively streamed on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86067892659 Access code 12261753
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Event Info

Nov 12, 2024, 6:30 to 8:30 PM

Nov 13, 2024, 6:30 PM

Nov 15, 2024, 12 PM