St Johnsbury Housing Concerns

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Created on Thursday, 17 November 2016 20:27
Written by Jessica Gullbrand

 

housingST. JOHNSBURY - On Thursday, two meetings were held in Saint Johnsbury, both with housing as the main focus.
The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board met at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum on Thursday to discuss opportunities and challenges in the area.

One of the challenges mentioned was unemployment while one of the opportunities included the abundance of jobs.
The job market associated with housing is not a new concern, but according to St. Johnsbury selectmen Jamie Murphy, the main problem behind that concern is finding the people that desire living in St. Johnsbury. "Our bigger problem is finding people that want to move to St. Johnsbury, that will take the jobs we have available."


St. Johnsbury selectmen Jamie Murphy, says the main problem with there being jis finding the people that desire living in St. Johnsbury. "Our bigger problem is finding people that want to move to St. Johnsbury, that will take the jobs we have available."
Another meeting went underway in Saint Johnsbury as well, to discuss safety for tenants and landlords for commercial housing in the town.

When it comes to safety concerns the town is working on fixing the issue of updating the standards for tenants and landlords, they have run into a couple issues.

"Clean, safe, sanitary housing is of the essence of a community. You have families living there, you have a community that functions based on it's housing stock. everybody seems to know their rights but they don't know their responsibilities and just because they're is a right of responsibility in a healthy and safe manner." Code Compliance Officer Bob Holmes hopes the update to the inspection code will help the community learn this responsibility and hold them accountable.