I had to go read the article bc I'm in Seattle and there's no way Vermont is worse than here. The number and ranking is counted as a per capita unit which is fine because it does tell a story but it shouldn't be used for the ranking imo. And VT has only 2% that aren't sheltered. I'd say VT is doing a much better job than most places. We have so many unhoused, unsheltered ppl here. Giant tent cities , massive piles of garbage. Its like whackamole here cause they finally clean one up due to a fatal stabbing or fire, and then they just pop up somewhere else.

I have empathy for the ppl. I used to work in a women's and children's shelter in the area. But the news stories trying to humanize the situation are frustrating to me because even if the unsheltered say they weren't always like this, then why do they leave garbage and trash and poop everywhere? They go to the store for food, they can buy a trash bag and keep their garbage collected if they really haven't always been like this. (The ppl is shelters are not generally the ones doing this though, just to clarify)

The affordable housing situation is a problem everywhere and it's so frustrating that at almost every level of government no one who has the power and funding will do anything about it.