Latest / Aired Out / Angie Harbin - Executive Director of Downstreet Housing and Community Development, Barre Vermont

Transcript

Angie Harbin - Executive Director of Downstreet Housing and Community Development, Barre Vermont · Aired Out

• 0:43
  Speaker 1: My fathers always my way. Really love my.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Flying the Wall production, springing you the Airedout podcast first
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: thing here on a Monday morning. Of course, if you
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: get your day started at you know, four or five,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: then it's definitely not the first thing on a Monday morning.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: But we appreciate your eyes and your ears. We are
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: streamed everywhere you get your podcasts and on the web
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: at aired Out vt dot com. Woodland Studios did such
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: a nice job with our website. I just love it.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: If you haven't been on it, check it out aired
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Out VT dot com. Everything is in one location right there.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Finally we have some rain, and man, it's like we
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: got a sprinkle at my house yesterday and I was
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: just like, please just keep letting it rain here for
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: a little while. I know it's the R word and
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: most of us don't like the word rain, but man,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: we need it so bad. My yard has never been
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: tanner than it is right now. It is the twenty fifth.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: What a weekend. I got to tell you, that whole
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: experience of the Nodes Family Farm for Barry farm Fest
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: was just something I'll never forget. On Saturday, and if
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: you were there, you know how amazing it was. Mark
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Tetrow is going to be in here with a recap
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: of all of the dollars counted at the absolute least.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: But thanks to all of our performing musicians and all
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: of you that showed up and enjoyed the incredible food,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: incredible people, tons of volunteers, tons of hours that have
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: gone into this over the last couple of months trying
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: to put together at this benefit, this fundraiser for the
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Nodes family who lost their barn, their huge barn with
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: two hundred animals inside, from that horrific fire back in
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: the beginning of April, and we're going to do well
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: we can to help them rebuild and get back together. Hey,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: don't forget tomorrow, being that is Tuesday. It is five
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: dollars Tuesdays back at the Capitol Theater. Also five dollars
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Wednesdays at the Paramount Theater. So one of our presenting
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: sponsors here FGB Theater, So grab your tickets, skip the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: line FGB Theaters dot com, follow them on all social media.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: It is going to be a great week. I am
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: so much looking forward to it. I really am enjoy
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: those rain showers today. Angie Harbin, the executive director of
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: nonprofit Downstreet Housing and Community Development is with me this morning,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: an organization known for for standing up for smart community
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: driven development, and this is an organization that I am
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: so excited to finally get talking about here on the
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: air on aired out. Welcome Angie, it is a pleasure
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: to have you with me.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much. Dad.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you when Nick came in here,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: he was just like, man, there is so much more
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: going on with Downstreet Housing and Community Development than people
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: are aware of. And we got to start hitting the
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: hitting the drum on this. And I was like, man,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: you are spot on right. And I was like, when
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: are you coming on the air with me? And he says, no, no,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: and she's coming on and we're going to start chipping
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: away at all the good stuff that you guys do.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: And it's a long long list.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: It, in fact is. And if I had known this
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: was an option for Nick to come on the air,
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: he might be here this morning.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Great.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: He's quite the champion, very and very well spoken. He's
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: got a lot to say. And Nick who's away on
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: vacation right now, but he doesn't realize it. But I'm
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: going to be putting a whole heck of a lot
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: of heat on him to get in here at some point.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Excellent.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I mean he's communications, he does part.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Of our communications. He's the operations manager for Downstreets, so
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: he fills in a lot of gaps.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Listen, your whole team at Downstreet is incredible. It is
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: a giant family, and everybody works so hard and does great,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: great work every single day. And I don't want to
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: name names. I mean we've already said Nick, but also
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: your SaaS program manager Jen Lapan, there's another one. I mean,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: what a great lady. And a shout out to Downstreet's
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: new Residence Service Coordinator Jane Paranto, who packed up a
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: whole bunch of backpacks for kids to get back to
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: school with. And man, she's coming out of the schoot
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: here in a big way.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: One hund And you could go down Downstreet staffless and
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: probably have something to say about every single person on it. Yea,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: it is a phenomenal team.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Forty years old almost almost. I had no idea. I
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: really didn't. That's I mean, we've all heard Downstreet. But
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: what it is that you you do is deep and
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: in some regard pretty complicated. I mean, you're you're you're
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: not just doing one thing. You're doing a lot of
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: different things for a lot of different from honors, before
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: we talk about Sporanza and before we talk about Fox Run.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: What is Downstreet? I mean, it's it's it's more than
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: just putting people in housing. It's it's far beyond that.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: So this is a dangerous question because it's my favorite
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: topic and I can get awfully detailed. So if I
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: start veering into boring, just do this, let me know
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: you've crossed the line. So what I mean we're trying
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: to think about this kind of distilling down Street to
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: its essence is we provide homes that are affordable to
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: a wide array of people, and we provide the support
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: and the services and the resources to help people stay
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: in those homes. That's functionally what every single person at
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: Downstreet is making happen. And that is really simplified. As
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: you alluded to, this is a complex business generally. It's
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: I mean, housing is complicated that I don't know how
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: many times a week I say that.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: It's complicated for so many different reasons. Because folks need housing,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: they need safe, dependable housing for a lot of different reasons.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: And some of us are disabled, some of us have
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: some mental health issues. Some of us have had crisis
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: that has presented itself by surprise. Some of us have kids, families.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Some of us need this to be a temporary situation
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: for a year or two or more to get re
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: established and pick up our pieces and get back to
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: where we are. And some people need this to be
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: long term sustainable options.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: That is a great description, and this is where we
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: get into kind of the nitty gritty of affordable and
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: the complicated even in just that word.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, so we have.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: So when I think about like truly affordable housing, you're
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: talking about subsidized housing where folks spend thirty percent of
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: their income for rent. That's how we define affordable. And
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: if your income is zero, then your rent is zero.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: And then if as your income goes up, so does
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: your rent. That is a relatively small portion of the
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: kind of housing that Downstreet does, in part because it's
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: so expensive, we're depending on third party rent assistance. Sure
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: like Section eight is the one that people are most
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: familiar with, but super important part of the work that
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: we do. If you're on a fixed income, say you
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: have SSI, you need subsidized housing for it to be affordable.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: And then we get into the whole array of what
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: affordable needs. Because you just described to a whole lot
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: of folks who live in downstreets housing. We also are
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: home to your server in your restaurant, or the person
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: working at your grocery store, your co op. It's a
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: full range. A lot of times folks just need an
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: affordable place. And in Vermont right now, that's becoming less
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: and less common in the market sector that rents have
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: risen so high that folks with everyday jobs aren't able
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: to access that housing. And so when Downstreet's building affordable housing,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: it's mixed income. Almost every single project, not everyone, but
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: almost everyone is a range between subsidized so affordable to
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: our very lowest income neighbors all the way up to
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: one hundred or one hundred and twenty percent of area median,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: which for a family of fours around one hundred thousand dollars.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: That's a big range. So healthy community, right, you got
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: folks of all kinds of incomes living in the same
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: place and also meeting a wide variety of housing needs
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: in our communities.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: We're talking about that H word, which is housing, and
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: the other the other one, of course, homelessness and there's
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: a there's a relationship between the two here in Vermont,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: and I have you know Vermont is what now number
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: four in America for homelessness per capita.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, we were number two. I think it was
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: last Our rates didn't get better. Other states rates just
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: went up, and it's yeah, this is rough stuff. So
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: when we talk about so housing my absolute favorite word,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: we get into the age words. Homelessness probably my least
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: favorite age word when we're talking about it. And one
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: way we've started thinking about it is I think a
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: good analogy is musical chairs. So you've got a community,
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: you've got chairs, You've got ten chairs, and you've got
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: ten people. They all need to find a chair. You've
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: got someone with a broken hip. It's going to take
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: them a while to get to the chair. Everyone else
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: is getting to all of the chairs a lot faster
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: than they are. They're going to be a little slow,
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: a little clunky, but eventually they're going to show up
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: at the chair and there's going to be a place
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: for them to sit down. When there's nine chairs, that
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: person doesn't have a shot. Everybody else gets to the chairs,
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: the chairs off fill up, and they're not sitting down
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: and that's what's happening in Vermont and in a lot
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: of places all across the country right now, is there's
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: just not an housing. Now, all these other factors come
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: into play, you know, substance use or mental health or
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: those those things can make circumstances more complicated. But when
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: you look at the data across the country, you have
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: rates of homelessness like you see in Vermont when they're
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: simply not enough housing.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: We hear, you hear all the time. I'm sure that
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: we need more workforce housing too. I mean, that's that's
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: that's a situation that just adds to the complexity of
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: all this is the the folks who are not Vermonters
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: but are trying to get here to work. They've got opportunities,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: and when they get here, they can't find anything. A
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: couple of years ago, I think it was maybe two
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: years ago, there was a a family of I think
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: it was four kids, mom and dad, who both got
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: job jobs in our local school system here in Washington County,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: two different schools, but couldn't find anything before they left.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: I think it was organ and contracts are signed, they're
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: ready to go, they're looking forward to their new jobs.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: They're excited about coming to Vermont, couldn't find anything, and
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: when they got here were living in a campground in
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: a tent, and it was starting to get cold. September
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: October gets cold. That's crazy to me. That is like
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: there's something very wrong, you know what I'm saying.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I was the number. I hear it periodically and I
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: haven't seen it recently. But it's like, we have got
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: thirty five thousand open jobs, some crazy number across the state.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: We don't have those employees living in the state of Vermont.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: If they don't come here, we don't feel those positions.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: So we don't have our teachers, our doctors, our dentists,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: our folks to do every single thing that we need
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: in a community in addition to your you know, your
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: servers and your grocery store clerks and pick a thing.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: I mean, I am a transplant. I came to Vermont
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: three years ago. It took me six weeks to find housing.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: I would say it was not housing I would necessarily
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: recommend to someone else, very very expensive and something that
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: you know, I was able to do it. Didn't have
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: kids at home anymore. We could kind of figure it out.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: But it wasn't an easy thing to figure out, and
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: if you have choices, you might not choose to come here.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: And I think that's also becoming true of people who
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: already live here, that the housing that they need doesn't exist.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: And when people have choices, they move, which means we've
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: lost the workforce that we need. And people without choices
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: are living in substandard conditions. So they're living in cars, intents,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: maybe in hotels if they're lucky.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Speaking speaking of hotels, we're going to talk about that
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: just in a minute here. But you know, I'm thinking
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: of going back to high school here. It wasn't a
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Maslow's hierarchy of needs shelter.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we say housing first, that's our model. Often
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: we're saying housing first and services right away. We do
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: have folks who need support, not across our housing continuum,
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: but in some of those some of those instances. But yeah,
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: you're not doing other things. You're not taking care of
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: all of the other pieces in your life. Imagine trying
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: to get a job with no home. I mean figuring
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: out the I mean now phones at least we have
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: cell phones, but like the shower, the the clean clothes,
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: the iron clothes, showing up being well rested and prepared
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: for the interview, and then you can apply that to
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: every single other thing. Imagine supporting your kids in the
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: school system. Are you going to be the proud parent
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: at the parent teacher conference? If you're wearing pajamas and
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: you haven't had an opportunity for ast hour and a
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: week and a half, you might just avoid that, which
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: doesn't serve your kid or your family well at all.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Or sure everybody has Everybody if they don't necessarily have
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: an opinion about housing and affordable housing in Vermont, they
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: certainly have a feeling about it. If it's a If
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: it's an opinion that they're not wanting to verbalize or
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: make known on social media or anywhere, at the very
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: least they've got that they've got a feeling it. It's
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: a hot button no matter who you are, and the
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: feeling can range from political, it can range from just
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: being grateful that you have a home to live in.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: It may not be spectacular, but you might be just
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: very feeling very blessed to have what you have, or
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: you might be feeling desperate to find a new place,
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: or you might feel, as many have, I'm happy I'm lucky,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: I'm blessed to be where I'm at. But if something
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: were to happen, and you're right, you just said it
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: wouldn't take much, there's some anxiety that, even though things
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: are going well right now, I don't know if I
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: would be okay. I don't know if I would be
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: able to afford to pick up the pieces. I don't
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: know if I would even if I could afford it.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's available, if I'm I'm actually
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: going to find a place. There's a lot of feelings
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: that people have about this.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: Those are real feelings. If you think about the floods
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: over the past two years and the number of Vermontors
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: who were displaced and they had to have that very
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: real experience of oh wait, yeah, there isn't another place,
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: and our social safety net is not as strong as
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: it has been historically. We're losing housing subsidies left and right,
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: which means our very lowest income Vermonters are going to
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: have an increasingly hard time securing housing. And then just
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: in general, we don't have the housing stock. So you know,
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: if you lose forty homes in Burry City, there's not
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: another forty homes for folks to relocate into sure in
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: any short period of time. So it's scary stuff for.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Folks that are just tuning in. You kind of gave
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: a general explanation as to what is considered affordable, and
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: I have to put up the quotation marks here of
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: affordable housing in Vermont. What is that again? Just repeat
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: that if you could.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: So we talked a little bit about subsidized housing. That
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: means a third party pays a portion of your rent.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: You the household pays thirty percent of their income for rent.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: But when we get into affordable housing, when we're developing it,
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: it's rents that are created to be affordable at certain
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: area median incomes. So most of our subsidy for development,
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: those those federal sources that we bring into our local communities.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: It dictates around sixty percent of areamedian income. So for
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: a family of four in Washington County, that let's see
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: around sixty six thousand dollars. And so we're trying to
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: house folks that are earning that income level and below,
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: and so rents are tied to that amount. And then
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: we have kind of that workforce housing that you talked about.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: So that's the sixty one to one hundred and twenty
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: percent of area median income, and that is we have
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: a lot less subsidies for that, so we have fewer
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: of those units in our mixed income housing projects, but
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: also included because as you know you've mentioned, we're just
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: tight in housing across the board right now. In Vermont,
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: I spent twenty years saying we need more affordable housing,
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: and now I'm saying we need more housing period. You know,
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: anything except luxury we need in our communities.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Right off your web page here, I just want to
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: read something that is notable here. Creating permanently affordable rental homes.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Downstreet develops, owns, and operates permanently affordable apartments and manufactured
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: home communities across Washington, Orange, and Lamarck Counties. We currently
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: manage over seven hundred affordable rental homes in eighty five
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: mobile home lots, and we're growing actively working toward a
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: merger with Lamoyl Housing Partnership, through which we already oversee
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: operations and provide management for its Lamorel County properties, including
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: two hundred and thirty three homes and an emergency shelter.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Right now, we have fifty six new homes under construction
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: in Waterbury and Berlin and advancing projects in Montpellier and
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: Johnson to meet the region, the region's urgent need for housing.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: That's pretty cool.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: It's cool. We started off twenty twenty five with sixty
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: nine homes under construction, which I think for Downstreet is
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: a record. You were a relatively small affordable housing shop.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: We're working in Vermont. We're not building three hundred units
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: with every project, so that was sixty nine and four communities.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: We're actually, I think we need to update our website.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: We're down to just twenty six units under construction. We
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: just opened Fox Run Apartments and then our next are
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: going to be in Barry, Montpellier and Johnson, and we're
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: anticipating starting construction in about eighty new homes next year.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, jeeze.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: So we are moving at a clip right now. It's
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: not enough. Our housing needs go beyond this, but it is.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: We are maximizing any funding sources currently available to affordable housing.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: And that's so important. And that's part of what I
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: was talking about with Nick, is that there's I understand
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of concern that Vermonters have, but Downstreet
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: is making some great strides, and those strides need to
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: be better communicated, and more people need to be aware
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: of what's happening. We all, you know, we understand that
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: we're still going uphill here, but I think we're making more,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Like you've alluded, we're making some progress. We're gaining some
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: ground here, more than we were a couple of years ago.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: We're climbing. Yes, we absolutely are.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Speaking of Fox Run apartments, the ribbon cutting was just
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago. Our Lieutenant governor was there,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: ever North collaborated with you guys on this. That was
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: a big deal. And we're talking about thirty or so
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: new apartments as part of Berlin's New Town Center. What
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: a beautiful building. And I've seen the pictures inside of
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: those those apartments. They're incredible.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Those are beautiful, beautiful homes, and it's Fox. One's a
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: really good example of what mixed income affordable housing looks like. Yeah,
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: ten of those units or those homes have subsidies, so
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: affordable again to our very lowest income neighbors, and then
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: we have homes that are affordable all the way up
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: to folks you know, earning around one hundred thousand dollars
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: a year, so it's the full range. We can house
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: you know, the teachers who need to work in the
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: local schools, as well as you know folks exiting homelessness,
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: all in one location. And if you've seen those photographs,
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: they are absolutely beautiful, beautiful units. You can walk to
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: the local schools, you can walk to shopping, you can
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: walk to healthcare. The location is ideal for a lot
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: a lot of people. And it's interesting occasionally you hear
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: the rhetoric, well, the market, the market will create enough
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: homes right They'll build the thirty five thousand homes we
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: need in Vermont right now, and that will lower rents
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: across the board and eventually your lower income folks will
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: be able to move in. And one of the cool
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: things about Fox Run is we're not waiting for the
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: building to be run down enough for the lower income
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: folks to move in. That they're equally beautiful units for
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: people at a lot of different income points.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Sure, and we're still taking applications for some of the
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: one in two bedroom units.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: We are still taking applications for ones and twos. And
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: if you go to Downstreet's website downstreet dot org, there's
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: a spot right there where you can apply online or
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: ask questions about what's Oh and actually there's a list
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: of what's currently available.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: All right, I want to I want to chat with you.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: We just got to comment here. Ward five School apartments
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: are beautiful.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: This. I was telling you we should cover this because
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: this is the tallest thing right now. So we're talking
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: about Barry. Downstreet right now operates sixty four affordable homes
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: in Barry for rentals, and nine of those opened up
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: in March of this year. This was the Word five School.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Old Ward five School historic building, an old school that
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: Jen Lapan and several other of Downstreet's residents actually attended
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: as children, has been vacant for almost a decade, falling
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: in disrepair. There was mold, the roof was falling in,
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: and it was at the very center of the Blackwell neighborhood.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: So I will give a shout out to Tom los On.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: This predated me. He came to Downstreet and said, this
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: can't be an elapidated building the center of our neighborhood,
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: and so we started working into figuring out how to
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: make that home. So those are nine gorgeous, gorgeous homes
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: in an old historic building. We have some funding for
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: some public art that's going to tie the stairs from
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: the building into the neighborhood and just a fantastic project
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: from multiple perspectives.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so exciting. I love tell Nick he's got
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: to stay on me about that because I want to
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I want to hear about, you know, development, it's so
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: so exciting, you know. And we talk about Upper Prospects
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Street too Prospect Heights. I mean, there's there's another one.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: So Downstreet is on the board. We're trying to figure
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: out what can be done there, and that will not
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: just be a down Street project. Obviously. That board is
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: comprised of lots of different people in the communities who
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: are interested in housing, so it will eventually be a
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: mixed income project. Downstreet also has Seminary Street here in
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: Barry that we should start construction on in the spring,
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: So that'll be thirty one new units here in Berry,
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: so new homes for folks. It's in the floods plane,
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: but Downstreet has proven that we can build in the
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: flood plane the last two floods, and I should knock
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: on some wood. Downstreet's offices here in Berry are partially
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: in the floodplain and then we own the Transit Center
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: building in Montpelier. Both of those were completely surrounded by
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: water lapping up against the building, no water intrusion, no
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: damage to building systems or homes. It was, I mean,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: pretty amazing. We know what we're doing, We can do
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: this well here in Barry, and we're excited to partner
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: with the city on this one. This was the lot
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: for a dollar can somebody build housing? And it also speaks,
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: I think, to the current market because we got a
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: call from dew saying, Hey, we want to go in
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: for this, and I said, don can you just can
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: you do it? Our process is a little slow, a
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: little clunky. Berry needs the housing. Now can you just
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: make this happen? And he said, we can't do it
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: without the subsidies. And that's a very real reality at
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: this time. Building costs are so high that it's getting
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: really hard for your market rate developers to develop.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: How did summer street fare?
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: So we got the first flood, we got about a
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: half an inch in one doorway, and if you looked
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: at those videos, I mean there was water lapping up
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: against the building. I was getting phone calls from community
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: partners saying we've got computers, we've got chairs, we've got desks,
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: we got you covered. And you know, I was I
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: live in Tunbridge, our developer lives in Burlington. Neither one
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: of us would get here for a day, and when
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: we finally got into the building, we were just incredibly relieved.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's that's tremendous.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: It was amazing. But it's you know, it's modern flood standards.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: It's good building design. That is the way buildings need
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: to be built, and definitely the way that Downstreet is
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: building them.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: All of us remember when that building was construct and
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: the level of excitement, I mean all up and down
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Summer Street. Yeah, there's it's great.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: It's a nice addition to Bury.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were just chatting about Prospect Heights. I used
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: to work at a radio station that's up on top
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: of Prospect Street at the very top, which kind of
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: looks like a home and radio station closed down. That
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: building is now vacant, and we have a question here
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: from Shirley asking what's going to happen If you know
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: anything about what's going to happen at that old site
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: at the dead end of Upper Prospect, the very end
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: with the giant radio antenna in the backyard.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: I do not know what's going to happen, but I
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: am writing that down and I'm going to find out
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: what's going on with.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: That based amazing if you found that out and got
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: in touch with me, I would love to know, because
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: there's there's a lot of land up there. I mean
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: that's there's a lot of land.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So the biggest no no for real estate development
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: is dreaming on other people's land. But sometimes folks just
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: haven't thought about it. It's just there and yeah, and
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: might be interested in the conversation.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: We have heard you have everyone has heard plenty about
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: the quality in not only in the past, but also
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of rumors about what's going on over there.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: We see a lot of trucks in there, we see
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: contractors in there, We see that renovations seem to be
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: in high gear right now. What's being done and what
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: exactly is this Speranza in JD.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: You forgot to mention the beautiful, beautiful paint job happening
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: at the Sporanza in which I think just is a
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: great exterior like this is this is the improvements that
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: are happening here. Yes, just look at it. So everybody
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: knows the quality in. It's been in Barry for a
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: number of years. I've only been here a little over
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: three years, but that's been kind of a dilapidated building
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: on Main Street in Barry. That wasn't a place. I
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: remember driving by and telling someone we're gonna try really
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: hard to get that building, and they just said why.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: But what it was was a building operating as a
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: homeless services hotel in Berry, and I wasn't here before COVID.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: I don't have the whole history. I just know what
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: was happening as we were as the owner was interested
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: in selling it, so we already doing all the inspections.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: We were in and out of rooms. We have an
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: idea of what that looked like. What we know is
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: that our communities are safer and healthier when everybody has
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: a place to be inside Downstreet generally does housing homeless
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: services is a little bit outside of our our kind
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: of our core mission of what we're doing. And in fact,
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: the way we ended up being connected to the quality
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: in which became the speranza is I was talking to
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: someone at the Office of Economic Opportunity about permanent supportive
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: housing models and talking about converting the quality into actual
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: housing rather than a hotel. She was talking about needing
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: someone to operate a homeless services hotel. It took us
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: maybe twenty minutes to realize we were having different conversations.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: She won because I have a homeless services hotel and
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: not permanent supportive housing at that location. But what we're
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: doing is taking something that was already operating there and
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: making it so much better. So I point to that
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: paint because just driving by you can see what's happening
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: on the outside, and that's what's happening on the inside too.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: So all of the funding that we're receiving to operate
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: that hotel is being invested in quality accommodations, twenty four
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: to seven staffing, and really supporting the people who are staying.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: There twenty four to seven staffing. It's really cool.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: Homeless Services Hotel. We know that we've got folks experiencing
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: a lot of barriers. We want to make sure they
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: have the supports they need all hours of the day.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that you've got staff that's really engaged with residents.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: There, amazing staffed.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Let's first of all, above all things, you're okay and
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: you're safe. That's the beginning of the beginning. Then we're
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: going to talk about everything else. But catch your breath.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: Catch your breath.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: You're in a good, clean, safe environment, and this is
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: not the way you to be. Don't say quality in anymore.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: This is a whole different thing now is you're you're
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: in a good spot.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: I mean it's an occupied rehab. You're in a much
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: better spot.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Much better spot.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: We're doing much more rooms than blocks.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, forty forty.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: Two, So forty two rooms. We're operating thirty at a
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: time right now, while eleven to twelve are under rehab.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Wow, so there's there's folks in there right now.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: You know, we and this is a shout out to
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: Downstreet Staffing and the whole Sparanza team. You know, one
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: day we didn't own a hotel and the next day
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: we owned a hotel full of people that you know
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: that we didn't know all of those kind of early conditions,
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: that that's what existed, and staff just stepped up and
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: did everything they needed to do to make sure that
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: the rooms were okay and that people were okay.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming that some grants are coming into play here,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: but there's also a price tag for this new facility.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: Indeed, we've got a four million dollar rehab going on
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: right now. We have funded most of that already. We've
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: got a three hundred thousand dollars gap that we're trying
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: to fill, and of that we've got about forty five
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars that's already come in. So we're down to
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: two fifty five out of a four million dollar rehab
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: project that we just need to get us across the
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: finish line.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, how do we how do we as residents, as
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: business owners, what have you? How do we get involved
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: with that? How do we help with those fundraising efforts?
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: I mean every little piece helps. So if you're interested
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: in supporting the project directly, Downstreet's website downstreet dot org
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: has a place to do that. You can also contact
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: our director of Development, Sarah Madrew her informations on our
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: website or me directly. Also information on Downstreet's website. If
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: you have other ideas, thoughts, donations, we're definitely interested in
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: hearing about those. We also are always hiring for on
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: call staff, So if you are someone that you know
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: is interested in some really rewarding work, that opportunity is
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: available to folks in the community as well.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Best thing to do if you're interested in that or
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: if you have comments or questions or anything is hop
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: on your Facebook page, but also hop on downstreet dot.
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: Org downstreet dot org and there is an information section
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: if you just have comments, or there's email or actually
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: there's phone numbers. I think there's something with email addresses
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: and spam.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: But slash contact us, slash contact us or general email
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: info at downstreet dot org.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: Excellent.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, no question, it's not going to be able to
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: be answered. You guys are going to be able to
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: provide any answer to anything that anybody has a question about.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: We can provide a response to anyone that. I mean,
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: I don't have the answer as to how we're digging
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: out of this housing crisis. There are things that I
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: would love to have answers to. But we're definitely happy
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: to share with you, you know, kind of what you know
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: or what we're what we know, what we're working towards,
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: what we're working on.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Sure, I've seen the Facebook page. I see how active
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: you guys are and how interconnected you are with ever
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: North and the list goes on up in Lamoyo County
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: SaaS everything you do, guys, do a lot.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: When you think about how important those connections are in housing.
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: So housing is like it's the foundation for everything you
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: do in a life. It's it's kind of that core.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: And so when anybody is providing any support services or
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: trying to figure out community development or whatever those things are,
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: it does come back to housing, which means down the street.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: It's got to be in that mix. And just to
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: best serve the communities where we work.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Can you talk at all about SASH in what it is,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: what it does, and you know, I am going.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: To give you a brief overview, and then I'm going
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: to suggest you have Jen Lapan show up and talk
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: about SASH because she is amazing and has been doing
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: it for over a decade. So SASH is support and
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: Services at Home. It's a housing based services program that
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: helps older adults age in place. So it is the
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: difference between being able to stay in your home. We
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: serve single family homes as well as folks living in
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: multi family apartments or having to end up in an
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: assisted living or some sort of actually non existent facility oftentimes.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: And we've got an amazing team of both case manager,
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: SASH coordinators and nurses who are doing everything they can
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: to make sure older adults are able to stay stay
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: at home, so that making sure they're taking the medications,
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: that they know what medications they need to be on,
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: We're communicating with medical providers, et cetera.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: I definitely will reach out to Jen and get long
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: overdue I think.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: I mean her office is right next to mine. I'll
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: be stopping in on the way back.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: You could walk here.
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: You can walk here.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Maybe two and Nick as well. I hope that that
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: he'll come on as well. But that microphone is it's yours.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: Anytime anybody at Downstreet has anything to say or any
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: updates on things progress being made or otherwise.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: We will keep that in mind. Because we have some
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: really cool services that are available to the community at
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: large that I I'm not sure everyone is aware of.
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: One of those is our home ownership program, so we
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: do permanently affordable home ownership opportunities for folks who can't
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: afford these market rate homes that are going through the roof,
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: So that shared equity program people should be aware of.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: We actually have a home repair program. If your income
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: is less than eighty percent of area median income, you
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: can qualify for grants. And loans sometimes silent loans to
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: make health and safety repairs to homes that you own.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: We have a revolving loan fund that does that in
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: Berry City, specifically for folks up to one hundred and
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: twenty percent of AMI and I think probably getting our
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: whole Ownership director on as well.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: To talk through first time home ownership.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: First time home ownership or you know it's been a
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: while and you're coming back, or you're in your home
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: and you're trying to keep it safe.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Shared living.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: We don't do a shared living, but we can connect
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: you with the people who do. And then we also
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: do foreclosure counseling, so if you are at risk of
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: losing your home, we want to be able to provide
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: the supports that you need to stay in it.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: Wow, how many what do you have for staff?
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: So down Street and October had twenty eight staff. That
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: was October. We are now up to fifty seven.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: It has been an explosion as we've added new projects,
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: so we've had to have new property manager's, new maintenance staff.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: We started this boranza in twenty four to seven staffing.
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: We're working towards that merger with the Moyle Housing partnership.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: So we have an entire team that we've set up
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: in the Moyle County. So we have just just exploded.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: We have always been small and mighty. Yeah we're a
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: little bigger and still mighty.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: The need is there, the need is.
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: There, and these are the people you want at your back.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no kidding.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: Helping to meet that need. They're doing it.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: I look forward to you coming back. Welcome to your
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: first episode with Air It Out.
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you. No, it won't be our last.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: Oh that's awesome. You know, you guys have a lot
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: of good news to spread. I mean, but you're also
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: very transparent with the facts and what's what's where. There's
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: improvement that's needed, and there's always going to be. There's
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: always going going to be. But you guys are making it.
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: Like I said earlier, you're making fantastic strides, chipping away
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: at something that is first and foremost probably the number
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: one thing needed in Vermont before anything else.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: Back. Some ass loves hierarchy.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: That's it right there. Thank you so much for coming
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: in here, Angie.
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: Thank you for the opportunity.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: J absolute pleasure to meet you. I look forward to
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: a relationship. I look forward to having others on and
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: let's do it again soon we will. Thanks so much.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: Have a fantastic rest of your Monday, everybody, Thanks for
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: catching The podcast aired out live from North Main Street
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: in Barry. Tomorrow, Lindsay's gonna be in from Williamstown talking
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: about the autumn festival that's coming up. Wednesday, Peter Hawks
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: from the Flying Ryan Hawks Foundation, Thursday, G's gonna be
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: in with a ton of laughs, and Friday we're going
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: to close out the week with Rex. It's gonna be
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: a great week. We're gonna experience it together. Have a
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: fantastic rest of you day.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: About your contay, ding about you play play, learning about
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: by about your broad contubout you, about your back