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by VDC Staff
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott wants to redirect state money from Burlington’s long-delayed overdose prevention center toward a 100-bed homeless shelter instead, WCAX reports.
Speaking at a media availability in Rutland on Wednesday, Scott pointed to the proposed supervised-use facility—often called a safe injection or overdose prevention center—as stuck in limbo. “That seems to be limping along,” he said. “I would take the money that’s been appropriated to that and put it toward the emergency shelter and work toward that if that’s the higher priority—which I think it is.”
City leaders and downtown businesses have been pressing for a low-barrier, year-round shelter for chronically homeless people as cold weather approaches. Scott has previously called a single large congregate shelter a bad idea and preferred spreading smaller facilities across Chittenden County. He still holds that view but says he won’t stand in the way if Burlington can secure a site and staff. His administration is also exploring a few smaller shelters in the county.
The overdose prevention center, authorized under a 2024 law passed over Scott’s veto and funded with opioid settlement dollars, remains unopened more than two years later. The pilot would let people use drugs under medical supervision while connecting them to treatment, housing, and other services. Millions have been allocated (roughly $2.2 million earlier plus additional funding), some of it already spent on planning, but site selection has repeatedly stalled. Officials recently signed a non-binding letter of intent on a possible building, yet the location stays undisclosed and the center is still not operational.
No formal press release from the governor’s office appears to have been issued on this specific funding shift; the comments came during the Rutland media availability. Scott’s suggestion frames the choice as one of urgency: winter is coming, street homelessness and downtown disorder remain acute, and the overdose center has yet to deliver results. Whether lawmakers or the city will shift the money remains to be seen.
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Categories: Housing
Part of Gov. Scott’s doing his job of playing defense against the irresponsible socialist spending and bad policy onslaught is here saying: you can have a shelter or you can have a shooting gallery…but you can’t have both. The progressives in Burlington are playing a sly game of allowing a private organization to attempt to site their “injection facility” to avoid direct criticism toward the Mayor about it’s location. Since no one wants to rent space for such a venture, they are seeking to buy space, but being very secretive about where. Mayor Emma-Hyphen doesn’t want it downtown, and wants to spread the junkies out a bit across town. She has said that the concerns of neighbors will be listened to, but let’s just assume that NO ONE wants this near them and it will have to be rammed down someone’s throat. This game of three card monte regarding the location is amusing, that is if you dont live in Burlington and fear it coming to your own neighborhood.
I’ve always believed that if Burlington is going to have a safe injection site, we should really think bigger.
Why not put it up on the hill, conveniently close to the University and the wealthier neighborhoods? After all, those poor students shouldn’t have to stumble all the way downtown to safely consume their recreational pharmaceuticals and then somehow find their way back to the dorm their parents are paying for.
And surely the affluent among us deserve the same dignity and convenience. As the Bruce Erdmann case so helpfully demonstrated, drug use isn’t confined to the stereotypical “junkie” living downtown. Apparently, even people with expensive houses, expensive cars and substantial bank accounts can have a relationship with drugs.
So let’s be equitable. If the progressive argument is that people who use drugs need a safe, stigma-free place to use them, then let’s make sure the service is equally convenient for the students, professionals and well-to-do residents on the hill.
Why should downtown Burlington have all the fun?
In fact, perhaps the first question when choosing a location shouldn’t be “Which neighborhood will tolerate this?” Maybe it should be “Which neighborhood has the greatest number of people who might actually need the service?”
I suspect that would make for a very different map.
Agreed. Governor Scott does a very good job of trying to do what’s right while placating the crazies.
Stop taking taxpayers money and using it for people that don’t deserve it. Most of these people that have come to this state don’t belong here. They are not from Vermont and they do not deserve the benefits of Vermont. Vermont should not be over tax for a bunch of losers that don’t wanna get off their ass and go to work because they’re drug addicts.
Mr. Martin is absolutely correct. Vermont doesn’t need more housing for homeless druggies from other states; we need fewer druggies from other states who stumble into Vermont looking for free, Vermont taxpayer funded housing…
About time someone makes a sane suggestion for use of taxpayers money. With that said we need to address the root issues causing social problems, not enabling and accommodating the results.
I’ve said it before there is nothing “safe” injection unknown poison in to your body. It is supervised
I’ve never heard of “a media availability”. Is that AI (“SI”) for a press conference?
My name’s Brian Judd. I am running as an Independent Candidate for Governor in November of 2026. Through an addiction to alcohol and drugs I was homeless twice in Florida from 1986 – 1990. I came home to Vermont, asked God and Family and Friends for help, went to in house treatment and have been Sober and Clean for over 35 years. If I can do it anybody can do it. Not everyone who is homeless has an alcohol and or drug problem. The majority of the Homeless Population is not from Vermont. I meet people who are homeless in my hometown of Barre City every day and tell them my story. In my experience the majority of homeless people I meet are not from Vermont. Through Executive Order I will bring back a State Psychiatric Hospital to Vermont. The State of Vermont would lead you to believe we have one, but we don’t. What we have is a 22 bed facility in a building adjacent to our hospital in Berlin. We need to bring back loitering and vagrancy ordinances for cities and towns and or loitering and vagrancy laws for our state. They worked. First, if you are homeless and not from Vermont you need to go back to where you came from. Where you came from is who has the responsibility to help you solve your homeless problem. God Bless You. I sincerely wish you well. The Experiment has failed. No longer will we be advertising in out of state newspapers in New England and the East Coast to entice homeless people from other states to come to Vermont for free benefits. People will be arrested. People will realize that receiving Our Benefits will not be worth getting arrested on a regular basis. They Will Leave. Just that simply we have eliminated 51 – 64 percent of the homeless problem in Vermont. We will help the remaining homeless population here in Vermont and get them off the street and give them medical and psychiatric evaluation and or treatment and or education and or on the job training that will get them back in the work force and will give them temporary shelter that will lead to temporary housing that will lead to permanent housing. These are simple but not easy fixes. These are not natural disasters. God did not create these problems. These are Woman and Man made problems and Woman and Man can fix them. If elected Governor I will do everything in my power through Supreme Executive Power and the Vermont State Constitution to end or dramatically improve homelessness in the State of Vermont. Thank you. God Bless You All.
802-839-9985 brianjuddward2@gmail.com