Keep in mind that with Community Care, you have to keep the paperwork straight... especially the consult number. Mine expire every 12 months for some reason...and if I don't get it renewed in time they wont pay for follow-ups.

Building new housing doesn’t help now. It helps 15 years from now. If there was adequate construction 15 years ago rent wouldn’t be as crazy as it is today.

If we don’t build more now then the housing situation is going to go full San Francisco or Boston in ten years.

The VA isn't going to fill out a Community Care consult for Boston. The criteria for those are distance, time, or availability. Right now they're most likely filling it out due to time. Unfortunately, most places are going to be booked out until late Spring or early Summer. Sources, I work for the VA now, my wife just left a job at MMP Joint Replacement, and we have friends still working for Spectrum.

My advice, stick with the VA.

Has Maine really been underbuilding housing?

I feel like for over 20 years Maine has seen very low, steady population growth of ~ 1% (which is just right - you don't want to be flat or losing population, and you don't want too high of a growth rate) and housing has generally been pretty affordable.

Of course, that's not uniform across the state. Most of Maine has been losing population while the Portland metro and some of coastal Maine has added population faster and has higher housing costs because of it.

But even the Portland metro has been fairly affordable until the past few years.

It seems to me this is more of a sign of exaggerated recent demand that a historical lack of new house construction.

Maybe I'm wrong?

Hip replacements are outpatient surgeries that are incredibly simple. You don’t need a world class surgeon to effectively perform it. I would go to the first place that has an opening within whatever range you’re willing to travel

I think there are numerous reasons at play. Shitty OOS investors who jack up rent prices, lack of available houses, shitty NIMBYs...

This is a key part of capitalism that we all consent to when we sign up.

Dont look away.

You just have to drive a long-ass way to get there. Same as many of the normal people who had them way back when.

Thank you so much for your advice

I just had surgery done by spectrum. They do have other locations. Any chance they could get you in sooner at one of those?

I honestly don't know how using VA Benefits/Insurance will effect things, but I'd check out MGH, BWH, Newton Wellesley, or NE Baptist. Overall much better care than Maine.

Maine Solar Solutions did our system a few years ago and were great.

Do you suggest one hospital over another in Boston

Beautiful drone shot

>not building enough homes and apartments only made the homeless crisis worse.

I'm sure that's part of it but from the perspective of someone who has had unstable housing for years, lived with friends/relatives/in my car/dilapidated trailers & cabins just to have shelter, the real issue is that rent prices are fucking out of control. I simply could not afford to pay rent in most places, and definitely couldn't afford to pay rent plus save money for first/last/deposit to move elsewhere. Edit- meant to say that I technically have stable housing now because I got a small inheritance after my sister died, so I was able to buy some off grid land with a decrepit trailer on it, but it's going to take a lot of work to make it livable in winters, so I'm still shuttling around to various places. (Planning to build a cabin, but that'll take time.)

One place I rented in 2018 increased rent from $600 to $900 on the shitty apartments in the building in one year, increasing every time a tenant moved out. Last I checked, those apartments were $1200+. The building didn't magically become less shitty over the course of a few years, they badly paint the place occasionally, but everything is old, paint peeling and barely functional.

Having new places built wouldn't have helped me, because new buildings generally charge even more for rent.

Go to Boston if at all possible.

Came here to say this. Building 1,000 apartments in ten years is not going to solve the problem. Even if those homes are only for low income households, not many will go to the homeless. They will be snapped up by single mothers and immigrants as quick as they are built. And I am not saying they shouldn't be, but the point is, 1,000 stretched out over 10 years is not near enough to meet demand.

Choose a different place for the surgery. You may have to travel.

My dad swore by Redwings for years until he upgraded to White’s.

Most people do not farm. It makes no sense for the government to force people to waste a finite resource, like land, for a potential activity they may have no desire or need to engage in.

So that's not happening.

Too many people are perfectly okay with driving by homeless people on their way to town meetings where they will deride anything that would increase housing.

Maine solar was great, similarly priced, but ghosted us after a good estimate. Revision came in and was great. I've heard of people having similar issues with both companies.

Green sun solar is a small operation with great prices. We just could get on their schedule.

And once all that housing is built who's to say that it's going to actually go to any locals and not get snapped up by investors who will turn it into short-term rentals again? Problem isn't lack of inventory the problem is folks hoarding real estate and Airbnb.

Jealousy isn’t a good thing.

Congrats on the nice camp!

You absolutely can farm on three acres. Not all farms are huge mechanized operations. If it's good soil (which we don't have a lot of up here) then it should be protected. Though in North Yarmouth, I have a feeling it's more of a property value issue than a land management one. Personally I believe in tax hikes on second and seasonal homes (excluding camps that aren't suited for year round habitation). There is a LOT of housing that isn't being fully utilized and is just serving as investment.