Our Political Betters have been wrangling with unsheltered homelessness for years now. The Legislature’s priority has been trying to get a roof over the head of every Vermonter, while the Scott administration has been laser-focused on cost control. Well, now they’ve hit a new low in terms of creative problem-solving and pretending to care.

See, apparently people with no access to shelter have been sleeping on the covered porch of the Pavilion Building, one of the Capitol District’s most historic structures. And the administration’s solution was not to find them accommodation elsewhere — it’s to scare them off with piped-in bird noise.

Yeah, we don’t care where you go, but we don’t want you here.

The noise devices were installed earlier this summer by the Department of Buildings and General Services, but were only reported last week after Vermont Public filed a public records request. No word on whether BGS made any attempt to get the Department of Children and Families involved to try to actually solve the problem.

It speaks of the administration’s policy bankruptcy when it comes to finding shelter for the unhoused. They don’t have any answers or any ideas. (Stay tuned for a post about what the administration is doing to Act 143, the Legislature’s well-intentioned reform of the emergency housing program. The governor signed it, seemingly not in good faith, because his minions are reportedly hacking and slashing away at it.)

The administration doesn’t give any more damns about Montpelier than it does about Burlington. Montpelier has more than 60 people sleeping outdoors, according to a recent count, and it only has shelter space for 18. Sixty may not seem like a lot, but Montpelier’s a small place. It amounts to roughly one unsheltered per 130 residents.

This isn’t unique to the capital city; unsheltered homelessness is a problem across Vermont, and the administration has failed to address it. So now they’re resorting to artificial noisemakers because, as Scott aide Jason Maulucci told VTDigger, ““The Governor believes it is important to maintain safe, clean and healthy public spaces.”

Not a word about the importance of ensuring that all Vermonters have a safe place to spend the night, because that has never been on the governor’s agenda.

And sure, it’d cost money. But it’d be cheaper than the social and financial impacts of doing nothing. Plus, there’s the moral dimension of the thing. As Jesus put it, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Well, we’re trying to scare away Our Lord and Savior with fake bird noises. Seems suboptimal. For those who believe in heaven and hell, there might just be a place where responsible state officials have to sleep on park benches and get admonished to “move it along, buddy” by a cop every fifteen minutes for all eternity. Just sayin’.