Photo courtesy UMass Lowell

If you live in Lowell or the Lowell Area, you may have heard there’s a little bit of consternation around homelessness, affordable housing, vagrancy, services, government responsibility, ADU’s, and all the assorted issues.

If you live in the Merrimack Valley, you know that traffic is terrible, housing is wicked expensive, there’s more fentanyl and needles than there are rainy days this summer, and that infrastructure isn’t super awesome right now.

Several Merrimack Valley Cities and towns are gateway cities and sanctuary cities. The area is home to many not for profit agencies, has been a landing place for migrants, and immigrants and generally is a hub for low-income services, housing, and people.

We have so many supports, so much history, and such a welcoming government that set policies to help all those that need it.  Things should be grand, yes? I mean they must be.  We are welcoming more people every day!!

If you have been paying attention though, you probably have noticed that things are falling apart.  It’s probably hard to notice from Newton or Concord but not from the Valley. That’s for sure.

So what’s going on?

I have a row boat. It can carry 375 lbs. of weight in it before it isn’t safe and will tip or sink. Capacity, that’s probably me and maybe a smallish friend or woman. Maybe a kid. But certainly not me and Teddy P. You put Teddy P. in that thing with me, and we are sinking.

Massachusetts is an overloaded rowboat or probably more like an overloaded ferry waiting to tip.  We have homeless families, FAMILIES seeking shelter and not able to get it. We have public spaces overrun with drug addicts and vagrants and no solution. We have housing prices so high that regular folks can’t afford them. Schools are failing but that’s a whole other issue.  The T doesn’t work. The highways are jammed. Public transportation outside of Boston doesn’t work. Emergency rooms on a Saturday night are jammed.

So what does our Governor do?

Not only does she keep the gates open to anyone that needs help, she actively seeks to add more people to our sinking ship. She was looking for emergency housing for immigrants last week in Lowell, as was reported on this page. I am not anti-immigration or anti asylum seekers.  There’s some pretty gnarly shit going on in the world.

But is it fair to those in need to bring them to a place that can’t take care of those we have already here?

I mean, if you have enough mashed potatoes for 12 people, you don’t invite 24. If I have an eight pack of Guinness, I’m not inviting 10 people to share it. No one will thrive. Let’s take care of those we have here in need first.  It’s time to close the gates for a while.  Let’s get this mess sorted. You add more weight and the boat is going to sink.

So why have our elected officials decided to do this? Apportionment.

Apportionment is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the House of Representatives among the 50 states. The Census Bureau conducts the census at 10-year intervals. At the conclusion of each census, the results are used to calculate the number of House memberships to which each state is entitled.  It’s not voters or legal immigrants or housed or whatever. It’s population.

All the folks we invite in and then let wallow in our broken systems are here for one reason and one reason only. So we keep our 9 districts and representatives.

Federal money sure helps. But it’s coming at a cost. It comes at a cost to the 26 designated gateway cities, to sanctuary cities, to the people that come here with false hope of the American dream, and it especially comes at a cost to those who have been here who can’t find a place to live.

Think about it.  Gov Healy was shopping for a place for out of state folks to live while families are homeless.

If it were up to me, I’d take care of those families first. Then I’d move on to the older children and veterans that are in uncool housing situations. Then I’d move on to mentally ill, the drug addled, etc. I’d also take care of infrastructure.  That’s a long list of to do’s. But I’d do that before I let anyone else in.

I know we can’t build a big wall around the state and hang a “No Vacancy” sign, but we’re at the point when we have to stop the “Come On In” sign from being way brighter than those in charge.

To all the drum circle folk, and those who will claim I am anti this or that, I’m saying let’s figure out how to get things right before we add to the problem. Because what we are doing isn’t working. You cannot save everyone.

If we don’t come to grips with that, our boat will sink with all of us in it.