People's Team

The House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs is continuing to hear testimony on H216 an act relating to federally assisted affordable housing.

Last night the Senate Health and Welfare and the House Health Committee held a public hearing to hear from Employers on H.559, the administration’s bill to implement what is called for in ACT 48.

While it was exciting to hear from employers that came and testified in favor of the bill, opponents of the bill had organized to have a number of employers there to testify against certain components of the bill that in our judgment if adopted might keep us from fully implementing ACT 48.

My name is Sandy Gaffney. I am here today representing the Vermont Workers Center because of Tropical Storm Irene. I lived in Westons Mobile Home Park just outside of Montpelier in Berlin, Vt. My home and 70 other mobile homes were destroyed by the severe flooding as well as most of our belongings.

Working parents with young children across the state of Vermont are daily confronted with a difficult choice: work outside of the home and pay for childcare, or stay home with their children and try to make ends meet on one income, or no income for single parent families. For one Essex Junction parent, the equation just didn’t make sense anymore. After paying for childcare for 2 children, she was bringing home $70.00 for a 40 hour work week. She left her job and now sits on the other side of the equation, trying to make a living as a registered home provider.

 Yesterday and today, the General Housing and Military Affairs Committee met to hear testimony about H.216, an act relating to preserving federally assisted affordable housing.

 This testimony included information from VHFA that many contracts for affordable housing, signed 20 to 40 years ago, are now ending.  This makes these units at risk for being sold and not be available as affordable housing for the mostly elderly and disabled who have been living in them.

I'm Sandy Gaffney. I was of a member of Mobile Home Park Residents for Equality and Fairness. We organized to be heard about what our needs actually were and to get them met. After the flood I came to realize that many of our needs weren't being met for a long long time and that I could work to change things. As a result I am a member of the Vermont Workers Center and here today.

Yesterday,Green Mountain Care board member,Dr. Karen Hein, presented a draft proposal of a Public Engagement Plan that would meet the requirements of Act 48.
Act 48 states that "the healthcare system must be transparent in design, efficient in operation, and accountable to the people it serves. The state must ensure public participation in the design, implementation, evaluation and accountability mechanisms of the health care system."

Legislative Updates Week of January 16th

The People's Team is back in action. Here are some things coming up this week and ways to get involved.

[This article was originally published in Bennington Banner, VT Digger, Rutland Herald along with other VT media outlets. ]

Start putting people first, right here

In 1967 in his Christmas sermon, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I still have a dream that one day the idle industries of Appalachia will be revitalized, and the empty stomachs of Mississippi will be filled, and brotherhood will be more than a few words at the end of a prayer, but rather the first order of business on every legislative agenda."

Giving Thanks to all who Struggle for a Better World:
As we sit down with our friends and families to share a meal together, we should honor indigenous Native communities and who continue to fight for their land and sovereignty against colonialism and corporate greed (Check out IEN's struggle against the Keystone XL Pipeline at http://www.ienearth.org/).