By Michael Bielawski
Is it a bargain place to live? Or a dangerous neighborhood to avoid? That’s the question as calls to police continue to come in from a ‘problem apartment’ on the south end of Church St. in Burlington.
As police and the city grapple with multiple shootings at this location and citywide, they are calling for new laws to enable them to issue felony charges to perpetrators of gun violence.
This past Saturday night, police responded to two more calls at 184 Church St. The first call was at 6:45 PM, regarding an exchange of gunfire. The scene was clear when officers arrived, and no suspects were found.
Less than two hours later at 8:33 PM was another call. A suspect was identified and determined to still be inside, prompting Burlington’s Emergency Response Unit to perform a tactical search and clearance. They found Tajon Lytch, 34, of Winooski. Lytch is known by police for alleged connection to a long string of incidents. He was cited for reckless endangerment and released.
On Tuesday WCAX ran a report highlighting the apartment house concerning “hundreds” of calls to police. The building is now partially abandoned.
“We know back in 2016, 26 tenants lived in the building. Now, I’m told there’s only a handful left,” the report notes.
The owner, Burlington businessman and landlord Joseph Handy, has not returned a call. He told WCAX that he’s hired extra security, kicked tenants out, and other measures to mitigate the trouble.
“We have been trying to work with anyone that wants to help us, but we are not getting any help from anybody,” Handy said.
He also said there’s “definitely a drug issue” at the property. The city currently has seen 265 drug overdoses as of mid-July, more than they did in all of 2022.
This is not the first time that the media has highlighted the property. The Burlington Free Press in 2016 wrote “Burlington police have responded 178 times to a Church Street apartment building since January 2015, a rate that police say sets the address apart from any other in the city.”
Handy noted in this report that it’s very difficult to evict problem tenants, saying that Vermont laws (as of 2016) seemed to favor tenants’ rights and it often took several months to complete an eviction.
A former tenant speaks
In an email with VDC, former 184 Church St. tenant and current Barre resident Timothy Page (who works with VDC) discussed what it was like to live there. He said that when he left in 2019 the building was “on the upswing.”
He added, “It was truly affordable housing, which gave chances to people who otherwise would be driven out of Burlington, due to income or background.”
He also said that the ownership was sluggish at times to address repairs. An example was when police complained about too many break-ins into the hallways, rather than install new locks the tenant who was reporting the break-ins was asked to leave.
He also expressed concerns that if the building is truly neglected, it will be a crucial loss of affordable housing.
“The danger of labeling one of the very few actually-affordable buildings in Burlington as a nuisance property is that most of those people will not have any housing opportunities if forced to leave,” he said.
He added, “Also, it will lead to even more pressure on Sisters and Brothers (the name of the Handy’s company) to jack up rates and increase prerequisites for tenancy. Burlington will have successfully driven out even more of the disenfranchised which its elected Progressive officials claim to care about.”
Police need new tools
In the police report on the recent shootings, authorities noted that they don’t have the tools necessary to hold offenders of serious crimes accountable.
“But we need additional tools—particularly an appropriate, felony-level charge for reckless endangerment that involves firearms. When it comes to gunfire, particularly exchanges of gunfire, uncooperative participants are the norm. Criminals who shoot at each other in occupied apartment buildings or crowded city streets are not predisposed to working with police,” the report states.
It continues, “When no one is struck, and no one comes forward as a victim, we’re currently left with only a misdemeanor charge: reckless endangerment. I’m hopeful that the creation of a felony charge for reckless endangerment with a firearm will eventually be passed into law.”
The notion that Vermont’s law enforcement is not holding offenders accountable is not new. VDC reported in June of 2022 that the State’s Attorney of Chittenden County Sarah George has many connections to the Fair and Just Prosecution organization with financial backing by billionaire investor George Soros. The group is generally criticized for promoting policies that keep violent offenders too often on the streets.
The author is a reporter for Vermont Daily Chronicle.