by John Bossange
No one who lives and works in, or visits Burlington would tell you that Burlington feels as safe as it did just five years ago. Public safety is the major concern of everyone and by far the most important issue of the day. In Burlington, the upcoming mayor’s race will be dominated by this crisis, and it should be as well for Governor Scott and the rest of us who do not live in the city, but call Vermont home.
It is true that other towns in Vermont and cities across America are suffering from drug epidemics, crime, and homelessness. It’s a national and statewide crisis, but that’s not an excuse to minimize or dismiss the need for immediate action in Burlington while pursuing long term, permanent solutions. We know Burlington is the engine that drives Chittenden County, and the County is the engine that drives much of the economic, social and cultural engines of Vermont. 45,000 people live in Burlington and 170,000 live in Chittenden County. With all due respect to other small towns in our state that may share some of the same concerns, when 26% of the population lives and works in one location, it’s in every Vermonters best interest to protect this part of the state.
Governor Scott and whomever is elected the next Mayor of Burlington in March need to combine their resources and come up with a plan to care for the most vulnerable, desperate, drug dependent, and homeless individuals as well as to protect the rest of the public from feeling harassed and unsafe. Making the city an enjoyable place to live, work, and visit must be our community’s goal.
Right now we have allowed the situation in Burlington to deteriorate into graffiti centers of crime, tent settlements, street beggars, drug-related shootings, and a homeless population who have overtaken our public parks, streets, abandoned buildings, and the once vibrant, enjoyable commercial areas on and around Church Street. For someone like myself who does not live in Burlington, I find this environment dangerous, unsafe, often intimidating, and always depressing.
Let’s stop pointing fingers and blaming others for this decline. There is plenty to go around. Unwise party politics, naive coalitions of political correctness, and a lack of collective honesty and courage have paved the pathway for this crisis. It happened. We need to move forward with bold action. Either we pay now with comprehensive and expensive investments, or we pay later with the continual economic, social and physical decline of Burlington.
First we need to get the homeless, the vulnerable, those with mental health issues, and those hooked on drugs off our streets. We are doing them no favors by letting them suffer in public, unsupervised spaces. They need housing, food, clothing, medical, psychological and emotional support, and a pathway out of their dire circumstances. They cannot choose to sleep in open areas, tent, beg, deal and use drugs, and depend upon the drug criminals to feed their addictions. For their own safety, they must be moved to supervised locations.
To help with that, it is clear we need more police officers. More officers visible in the city, assisting with moving the homeless and drug dependent will increase public safety and create a more positive environment. Relocating the homeless and drug dependent begins with more well trained and well paid police officers in our city, not just with more social workers. We cannot have a police force thirty officers short with only four officers on duty at night. Defunding the police has been a total disaster and has opened up the pathway for increased crime, drug trafficking and usage, shootings, and harassing, intimidating street behaviors.
Police presence is the best deterrent to crime, and we need twenty-four hour coverage seven days a week. We need to return to community policing policies with sets of officers assigned to Church Street and specific neighborhoods, including our schools. Right now, we must boost Burlington’s public safety budget giving the new mayor and police chief the ability to recruit more officers by paying them well, and offering incentives.
Whether that funding comes from federal dollars or from our state is Governor Scott’s decision. The Governor has no choice if he truly wants to partner and address this challenge. Burlington is his city too. Like the next mayor of Burlington, the Governor must make public safety his number one priority. Funding must begin so the graffiti, shoplifting, open drug distribution and usage are reduced, making our streets and public spaces safer.
Second, we must identify housing units in selected motels and local shelters, again funded by a combination of federal, state and local dollars. Those sites must be staffed with security teams, doctors, social workers and counselors to be sure that these locations are safe and supportive for this vulnerable population. Again, this costs money, but we have no other options. The homeless and the drug dependent population are in crisis, and we must get them off our streets, out of our parks and abandoned buildings and into safer and more compassionate environments. If we don’t, many will overwhelm our Emergency Response Teams and hospital emergency rooms or they may die on our streets.
Third, we need a Chittenden County facility for this population. Like the temporary motels and shelters, this more permanent facility needs to be staffed with doctors, drug counselors, social workers and yes, with police. We need to place people there, some against their will or maybe their desire to live off the grid. Their safety must be addressed. Bold, fair, supportive and collaborative action is what’s needed in our planning right now. We cannot help with this population if they continue to roam our streets, sleep in the alcoves, and settle in our parks. The more they do that, more drug related crime will follow, just as it has for the past five years.
There will be some who may think that this approach is punitive and discriminatory. On the contrary, it is compassionate and realistic. There will be others who believe everyone has the right to be on our streets, parks, and in public spaces. They are wrong. No one has the right to make anyone feel harassed, unsafe, or in a threatening environment. And who feels safe right now returning to their car after an evening on Church Street? It’s time to stop using “root causes” and “blaming the victim” as a reason not to act with bold, compassionate action. We are in a crisis and have no time for a Commission to study the issue. We know what to do.
These solutions will cost millions of dollars. Here is where we need Governor Scott to step up, create a partnership, and put together a package of financial commitments to save his city. We might begin with a statewide public safety bond, just like we bond for roads, bridges, infrastructure improvements, schools, and other municipal facilities. In this case we would be bonding for public safety to save a downtown business district, to decrease crime, to help those who deserve our support and compassion, and to make Burlington livable, workable and a more enjoyable city once again.
Thanks to our hard-earned tax dollars, we might use funding available right now in our statewide Reserve Accounts. When combining the Human Resources ($97,000,000), Stabilization ($337,400.000), Unallocated ($106,700,000), and Rainy Day Reserve ($80,400,000) funds, we have a combined General Reserve balance of $621,500,000. There is also $728,000,000 in the Education Fund and $295,100,000 in the Transportation Fund. Regardless of the source, Governor Scott needs to accept this as his crisis too, and not fall back on the “no new taxes” mantra, unsuccessfully tried by another famous American Republican thirty years ago, especially when funding for these public safety initiatives is available right now.
No Vermonter can ignore the public safety crisis in Burlington. We all need to accept the fact that as individual residents, this might mean an emergency use of our Reserve Account tax dollars or a public safety bond. We need to remember that what happens in Burlington will eventually impact all of us, no matter where we live. We have no other choice. The time has come to invest our way out of this crisis. As the wise Supreme Court Justice Oliver Holmes told us over a century ago, “Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” In Vermont, it’s our hard-earned tax dollars we need to pay for safe communities.
The author is a retired educator and South Burlington resident.
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Categories: Burlington, Housing
All solid ideas that can sign in to WHEN, AND ONLY WHEN Burlingtons elected leaders stop digging the hole deeper.
When Burlington creates and approves the positive policy changes needed through its elected mayor and city council, I’ll be happy to help.
So, the ball is in Burlingtons court. Will they continue the progressive slide into chaos, or will they change their policies and actions?
As someone who frequented Burlington in the recent past for restaurants and shopping, I’ll be watching to see if the city earns my trust with prompt action or if the city continues on as a grifter with their hand out.
Hello, my name is Rev. Marcus Szczecinski. I am the director of Breaking Chains Christian Fellowship. We are a frontline evangelical street ministry encountering people where they are at in the name of Jesus in and around the greater Burlington area. Our group reaches out to and interacts with the population downtown throughout the week and often late at night. Our theme verse is from Psalm 107:14, “He brought them out of the darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.” As most people know, the overwhelming majority of the homeless downtown face drug and alcohol problems. They are also people and they have names. We know them personally. We invite them into our weekly Tuesday morning Bible study, breakfast, fellowship and prayer group where once someone comes in, we can work with them more closely. And if they don’t come into the group, we still work with people on the streets, encountering them where they are at, feeding them, talking with them, praying with them, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, getting to know them, and loving them and recognizing that they are people made in the image of God. In fact, our group is hosting a Christmas party for the street people this Saturday with food, fun, fellowship, live music and a Christmas message. If someone would like to get involved with helping to solve the issues facing many of the downtown street people, please feel free to reach out and perhaps even join in or partner with our group. And this is done at ZERO taxpayer cost. We do not receive any city, state or federal funds. Our work is funded 100% by donations.
God bless you in Jesus’ name and Merry Christmas!
Rev. Marcus Szczecinski
Breaking Chains Christian Fellowship
Cell: 802-310-0729
Email: breakingchainscf@yahoo.com
“He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.” (Psalm 107:14)
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6)
“Right now we have allowed the situation in Burlington to deteriorate” We Mr. Bossange ? How have I, living in Washington “allowed” the mess that Burlington has turned into ? Finger pointing ? Bet your ___ I’m finger pointing ! How about blaming me for the fentanyl poisonings ? The invasion on our borders ? The lax enforcement of the law ? This sharing of the “blame” is chicken s___ ! and personally I don’t appreciate having the responsibility for the problem someone else created blamed on me in any shape or form ! How does someone who is not creating the issue bailing out the offending failures discourage the probability of those responsible from doing it all over again ? If the only way that these problems are turned around is to watch these failures raise questions about those that truly created the problem, then those are the consequences those responsible should ultimately face . Why not get the state of Wyoming to bail out Burlington ? If we just keep bailing out the failures, what do those who are truely responsible learn ? There must be consequences. That’s why we have elections !
Oops, I live in Washington County, not Washington .
Bus tickets to locations far away will solve this problem quickly and at the lowest cost possible.
Bus tickeys ? For the Mayor and Council ?
😄😄Sure, the homeless, the drug dealers/users, the Mayor and council. Also send most of the representation in Montpelier along for good measure. But no round trip tickets, only one way, out!
Oops again ! Tickets not whatever a tickey is ! I realy need a new editor.
since our schools are dropping in enrollment, lets not continue feeding wealthy children , lets not raise property taxes,lets try fixing one problem at a time !
Providing every need for everyone who asks is a “kindhearted” policy but those states and municipalities that opt to provide basic and expensive services under the honor system are the ones that are overwhelmed with supposed need due the word spreading and people migrating in to take advantage. There is no qualification required to be given shelter in Vermont, since you can’t really prove that you have nowhere to live, hence it is awarded based on the honor system. Mayor Weinberg’s solution to homelessness is to provide more free housing, and surprise, surprise, the problem just gets worse when the word gets around. Putting a roof over one’s head is one of life’s big expenses, and when the word gets out that a very expensive service is being given away or heavily subsidized, that has great appeal, especially to those who would rather spend what resources they do have on “other things”. In the case of someone with a serious addiction problem to a dangerous substance, freeing up their limited financial resources to allow them to indulge is a death sentence. In the case of a free hotel room, the inherent privacy has been implicated in many overdoses. If someone overdoses in a communal shelter situation, there is someone around to notice and intervene, so those who advocate for providing the luxury and privacy of a hotel room for junkies have blood on their hands, despite their best intentions.
Burlington has turned into a dangerous cesspool but too many on the City Council and its residents are more interested in virtue signaling its woke bonafides. Tonight there’s a resolution on the City Council’s agenda, to order an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to make unfounded claims regarding the shooting of the 3 young men recently in Burlington. The statements in the resolution are pretty vile. Burlington is clearly striving to become the Oakland of the East; sadly it’s well on the way. So it’s not concerned with the drugs and panhandling and tent cities, stores leaving due to theft and crime. It’s more intent on signaling its hatred of Israel and Jews.
30 years ago if you denied the Holocaust and made statements calling for the destruction of Israel you would have been branded a white supremacist or neo-nazi or a clansman…now you are just hailed as an enlightened college student or leftist activist. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
@ Rich
Amen to that!
Who are the college students or leftist activists denying the Holocaust or calling for the destruction of Israel? I’ve heard support for the Palestinian civilians that the Israeli government is bombing indiscriminately, I’ve heard demands for a humanitarian cease fire, I’ve heard criticisms of the Israeli government’s longstanding illegal settlement policy and its abuse of its Palestinian citizens – but that’s all. What are you talking about?
And how did an article on Burlington’s homelessness problem lead you to post a comment on the Holocaust anyway?
Since WHEN is it the police who are to find homes for the homeless??? Horrible administration!
The police have been expected to be all things to all situations for a long time, and in my opinion have performed far and away better than they ever should have to. God bless them ! In my opinion though there has to be a point where reasonable people say, “What, you want the police to do that ? That should be handled by Human Services, or the Health Dept. Cops should be Cops, and that is more than enough for any Peace Officer to be responsable for .
Hmmm. So Burlingtonians want the rest of Vermont to bail them out. Not so fast. Wasn’t it the city council that in 2020 voted to defund the police? An action reduced the number of officers from 95 to 64. Ouch. And, am I remembering correctly that you all declared yourselves a “sanctuary city”? Additionally, many out of state homeless flocked to our fair state during covid because we were handing out hotel vouchers like candy and housing anyone who came to Vermont for all the freebies. Now most have been removed from the hotels and a large percentage are homeless. They remained in the Burlington area because that is where the money and drug connections are. And, because of that, you would like 24/7 police protection. Well, you know… a lot of towns in Vermont would like increased police presence but are unable to afford it – but you think that we should pay extra taxes so that you can have it? I don’t think so. If any county has the money to fund it – it is yours. You have all the big companies, high salaries and expensive homes. So, I disagree that fixing Chittenden County is “up to everyone”, your mayor and city council created the mess you now live with – it is up to Chittenden County to vote them out. I agree, it is sad what has happened to the area, but you cannot expect towns that are already struggling with their own budgets to come to your rescue.(And I would imagine it would end Scott’s political career if he let it happen.) Are you seriously suggesting that we use the State “emergency funds” to bail out Chittenden County – what happens when that money is needed statewide? And I’m sorry but, I AM going to point a finger as to just how Chittenden County got into this situation…. directly back at the mayor and city council that Chittenden County voted for.
Yep. Montpelier is just like Burlington at a smaller scale; homeless encampments, homeless motels, thefts, aggressive panhandlers, drugs etc. So far it hasn’t had the number of shootings that Burlington has had but just give it time. And a population and government more intent on virtue signaling its wokeness and being “green “.
Mr Bossange, there is so much incorrect stuff, backward thinking… in this piece I don’t know where to begin.
Let’s start with the “numbers” of homeless/unsheltered individuals. Since we are one of the smallest states in the Union yet we are second in the Union with homelessnes… what does that say? Let’s find out why that is. How about we find out were all these people living in tents and on vouchers in motels/hotels have been for the last ten years. What were their addresses for the last ten years? When was the last time they or their partner and themselves lived in a place that they were financially responsible for maintaining (rent, utilities etc.)? And if that wasn’t in Vermont…. then they should be put on a bus and returned to the state from whence they came. Period.
If they are a Vermont resident and can prove that fact, then how did they become homeless/unsheltered? Solve that problem and you will eliminate almost everyone on the streets. Period. A majority of the time they became homeless/unsheltered because they made very poor decisions, usually illegal drugs and that is where the little money they had went. So, they got evicted. How is that OUR problem? They made a bad decision. It’s up to them to fix it with some help from friends/family and community. It is not up to the citizens of the state they live in to take care of them because they made a bad decision. Never, ever. We took away the laws for pandering, begging and vagrancy. Bring them back.
If someone truly has had a bad string of luck, and they are out there, then let’s help them and make them part of their recovery. Require inputs from them in the form of time and effort. Get them clean either in an inpatient facility or in jail. Stop feeling bad for them. They don’t need your pity. If they made decisions then they need to get a swift kick in the tuckas and be told this is what needs to happen or this is the consequences, and those consequences should be brutal. (Not physically but take away their freedom.)
Stop sending my money to take care of a problem I had nothing to do with creating nor have any input in how to correct. All the liberal/progressive people in this state have no idea what really is going on in terms of the homeless/unsheltered. This state needs to go hard on drug criminals. They need to be in jail and picking up litter along roadways. They need to be spending time making little rocks out of big rocks. Just ask anyone who has been jailed in another country like…Thailand, Russia, Yemen, China, Afghanistan and Malaysia to name a few. You need to stop the influx of drugs in our state. You need to get the non-citizens the hell out of the state. You need to give people dignity by making them responsible for getting themselves out of the hole. If you just hand everything to them, they do not respect or value it and they will trash it and disregard it. It’s called old fashioned values. And it’s about time they came back in style.
@ Pam
Correct. At present, someone just has to step over the VT line and they are now a Vermonter, with their hands stretched out for gimmes. The word has been out for some time that we give away lots of free stuff and people are showing up wanting what we give. If we weren’t giving so much to people who aren’t from here or to substance abusers who just use all the money they get to feed their addiction (since we house and feed them) we’d have the money to help those genuinely in need. There are people who just need an affordable apartment. People who lost their housing through no fault of their own and can’t afford the stratospheric rents being charged on the rare apartment that’s available. Many live in fear of their building burning down or being sold because they know they can’t afford the crazy rents being charged for anything available.
…in moonbat-infested Vermont, it is considered a microaggression to demand any sort of proof of need or require any level of documentation beyond a persons good word in order to justify distributions from the public cornucopia. That just piles on to the victimhood of the individual.
There is no reason to believe that the political will exists to fix what ails Burlington and the rest of Vermont. Not enough Vermonters resent the year after year tax increases being wasted to implement the progressive agenda. Those that have had enough, already voted with their feet. The Vermonters that are still here prove every election cycle that they like the crime, poverty and ever increasing social rot. The hard truth is that the only cure is to allow nature to take its course and watch Vermonts government collapse under it’s own weight.
@ Stu
Yup, I’m pretty fed up and want out. Between the leftists and their super majority, the increased crime, drugs and homelessness, the ever growing property taxes; why stay here?
Well, Stu, some of us can’t “vote with their feet”. So I don’t appreciate you stating that because some of us can’t pick up our homestead, livestock and all that it entails and start over somewhere else… that we like “crime, poverty and the ever increasing social rot”. I could go on about what it takes to stay and fight for what is right or the value in standing up instead of running away. But I’m not sure the point would be understood.
But, by all means, vote with your feet.
Dear John, the best plan is for the leadership of the city to come together and develop a plan to reinvent Burlington. OOPs what am I thinking… they already did that, and we are now seeing the results. It is the voters of Burlington who decide
the fate and direction of that city. Living next to Burlington concerns me and it puts a burden on all surrounding towns/cities. What happens in Burlington affects its neighbors and the rest of the state. Please elect people who want to restore the
city of Burington and make it a place where those who don’t live there might want to visit, dine, shop and perhaps live there. Today it’s a pock on the state of Vermont.
It has so much to offer and could be so much more. We are watching progressive ideology in live time. Hope it’s not too late. Elections matter.
It’s not a “pock on the state of Vermont”
It’s a boil on it’s buttocks.
The entire origin of the problem is naively helping people who won’t help themselves. Burlington, much like the average junkie, can’t really change unless it actually wants to. Asking for other people to take responsibility amounts to enabling. It’s sad, but I think Burlington really needs to hit rock bottom.
@ S Lowry
I’ve been contemplating that myself recently. Have been thinking that perhaps Burlington does indeed have to hit rock bottom before the people wake up. But it will be painful for Chittenden Co and all of VT because they have such a big piece of the pie; the good jobs, colleges, shopping and even a decent cell signal. Living in “the other VT” as I call my rural area, I shake my head over what they have and how willingly they are destroying it.
thank the bankers boys and the federal reserve for the next wave of homeless population coming your way. this will make every body feel some pain. do you like inflation and evictions//////
In addition to the excellent detailing above of the fruits of progressivism, may I add atheism to the list. For those who comment and are atheists, I admire you. But for the rest of us philosophical weaklings, we need the superstition of belief in God to keep going and avoid despair. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, Matthew 25:14 and the parable of the talents warned about laziness or ruining one’s life in some way and the nasty eternal consequence. Urging folks to start believing in God and what we owe God is not a quick fix but an inoculation for the future. In the short term, we need to apply practical solutions as detailed above. But for the long term, continuing to increase atheism will worsen the problem. There is a reason an atheistic society such as China has 2 million folks administering its social control system which monitors everyone’s behavior and meets out punishment (denial of train tickets, etc) to keep everyone in line.
VT has one of the highest suicide rates in the country. It’s also teeming with woke gender confused people who demand we join in on their delusional fantasies and leftists who apparently want a Marxist government. It’s also known as the least churched state. I suspect there’s a correlation there.
Mr. Bossange can take a big hike on Mt. Mansfield on a snowy day. I will take a big hike the day I spend a single buck of my tax money to bail out the sewer called Burlington. The progs made their bed, let em lie in it.
Under the current arrangement, the state is in charge of where and when these people land in any given community. The Legislature needs to give the Selectboards, Health Officers, and police more authority in doing what would be done on similar situations minus the State portion of the triangle. As of now, that is not the case. The towns are on the hook for public safety, in and around these facilities where homeless and who knows the remainder of the descriptions. Maybe illegal immigrants, drug addicts, felons (convicted), etc. Does it make any sense and add to the the betterment of puiblic safety in any community to be forced to carry these burdens without some help from the State? Of course not, and that has to change. As to the facilities for housing these people, i have one comment. There is no end to this under current programs, because the more the housing situations become available, the more the homeless and others will be attracted to move there. Draw a line in the sand and just say: “This is all we have folks, no more”.