By Guy Page
Burlington city councilors want Gov. Phil Scott and his administration to take a series of immediate actions addressing homelessness, mental illness, substance use, drug trafficking, retail theft and other criminal activity affecting the city.
The proposed 10 point resolution, slated for review Monday night and sponsored by Councilors Bergman, Schachter, Sanchez-Parkinson, Traverse, Grant, Litwin, Broderick, Singh, Neubieser, Carpenter and Barlow, argues that the problems confronting Burlington are statewide and national in scope and beyond the ability of a single municipality to solve.
Among the most immediate requests is state assistance in establishing a 100-bed, low-barrier, year-round homeless shelter somewhere in Chittenden County before winter.
The resolution asks the Agency of Human Services to help the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity identify and secure a location for the shelter, address potential staffing shortages and provide transportation for people traveling between social services and the facility.
CVOEO announced its search for a suitable Chittenden County location in July, according to the resolution.
Councilors also want the state to help expand daytime low-barrier space for unhoused people, either in Burlington or elsewhere in Chittenden County at a location accessible by public transportation.
The resolution calls the crises of homelessness, mental illness and substance use disorder “intertwined epidemics” that aggravate one another and are further complicated by Vermont’s housing shortage.
It also asks the Scott administration to quickly make FY27 state funding available to municipalities dealing with disproportionate numbers of people sheltering on public land.
Another request would extend the amount of time vulnerable homeless Vermonters, particularly families with young children, may remain in hotel and motel rooms beyond the 70-day cap permitted under Act 143 until sufficient emergency shelter space becomes available.
The councilors are also seeking restoration of mental-health resources, including four inpatient beds and three recovery-services positions at the Central Vermont Department of Mental Health site. They want the Department of Mental Health and University of Vermont Medical Center to develop strategies to improve acute and short-term mental-health care.
The resolution goes beyond homelessness and treatment services, tying Burlington’s downtown problems to repeat criminal activity, illicit drug trafficking and shortcomings in the court system.
Councilors are asking the state to devote additional resources to the Chittenden County court system and build on the county’s Accountability Docket, which the resolution says demonstrated that dedicated judicial resources could speed case resolution, increase accountability and improve access to treatment.
The proposal calls for continued or expanded use of a dedicated judge, prosecutor, public defender and other court personnel for cases involving repeat offenders and defendants facing multiple pending criminal cases.
It also seeks continued funding for a Howard Center caseworker working with the State’s Attorney’s Friday “Support Court,” and expanded capacity for Treatment Court and Mental Health Court.
The resolution asks the state to convene youth-service providers, schools, designated agencies and Agency of Human Services officials to examine juvenile involvement in violence, drugs and gun possession and develop ways to intervene with at-risk youths.
Drug trafficking and policing also figure prominently in the proposal.
Councilors want the state to increase and coordinate resources targeting Vermont’s illicit drug market, which the resolution links to access to firearms. They also request continued state law-enforcement assistance for Burlington, coordinated with the Burlington police chief and focused on drug trafficking, traffic enforcement and retail theft.
The proposal calls for closer coordination between Burlington and the Vermont Department of Health, including state support for publicly funded programs such as syringe services. It specifically cites programs offered by Vermont CARES and calls for education, outreach and communication with clients and neighbors, along with temporary state staffing or other resources when needed.
The resolution follows an August 2025 council request for state action on public safety and health problems. That earlier resolution sought coordinated law-enforcement efforts against drug trafficking, examination of juvenile violence and gun possession, and discussions among state health officials about treatment capacity and barriers to substance-use treatment.
The new resolution says there is “strong bipartisan City Council support” for working with Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and the Scott administration on the city’s community health and safety problems.
If adopted, the resolution directs the mayor to bring the council’s requests to the governor and report back to councilors “as soon as practicable.”
Discover more from Vermont Daily Chronicle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categories: Burlington
If there was a way to show a
thousand middle fingers to Burlington “leadership”, I would!! YOU made this filth, YOU lie in it!!
No, no , a thousand times NO !!
Do Burlington leaders have any concern for the rest of Vermont that have to pay for their HUGE mess? If small encampments were arranged with needed facilities to provide for basic transportation, septic, and electrical needs and simple decent quarters, it would not have cost the hundreds of millions it cost the decent tax payers of Vermont to fund the unending expenses of the hotel system.
VOTERS remember the Democrats and Progressives at the polls.
NO. Establish such things down South in the US…..where it’s warm in Winter. It’s been tried in Burlington long ago [COTS] and was a TOTAL failure.
What is “bipartisan support” mean in Burly these days? Agreement between Progressives and Democrats?
And support for what? That the cost of their failed policies should be shifted onto the backs of everyone else but them??
Y’all are clowns!
One can argue that “shelter” is a human right, and if so that societal obligation is satisfied with communal shelters. Giving away the relatively luxurious accommodations of private apartments and motel rooms based on the honor system claim of not having anywhere else to go is the reason Burlington and Vermont have attracted vagrants and miscreants from far and wide, and why there is such a persistent problem with violent crime, open drug activity and antisocial behavior. If the moonbat voters of Burlington want to continue to promote that dystopian nightmare, let them…but the taxpayers of the rest of Vermont are getting tired of financing it and suffering the increasingly widespread consequences.
Burlington already has live in institutions for psychiatric affected individuals, mostly between ages of 18-24
If Burlington had not mismanaged funds for the last 36 years, they might have had the money to fund their stupid projects.
Are these the same Councilers that voted to defund the police in Burlington? Just wondering…..
That reminds me of Mayor Bob Kiss of Burlington. In 2009, the city run municipal Burlington Telecomm was so mismanaged that is was losing lots of money. Instead of addressing the issue, Kiss illegally took $17 million out of city reserves to hide the losses. But he got caught. Typical of progressive politicians who couldn’t balance a check book but think they can run a city.
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 inhouse 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. 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 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.
Folks, just like young children, sometimes you just have to say NO. Humans do NOT have a right to food, water or shelter. When those things are provided without strings, there is a great likelihood the person will depend on the hand out and just want more. This stuff is not difficult folks.
I would suggest this. Humans DO have a right to food water and shelter AS LONG as they can obtain it without other peoples involuntary involvement. The same applies to healthcare.
Fundamental problem in government. Spending other peoples’ money. Can be raising taxes at your level of government, unfunded mandates on lower levels of governance, or expecting a higher level to pay to correct your issue.
While legitimate help may be appropriate, it is not good to pass off your failures to others.
The mayor, city council, and other groups in Burlington have long sought to address the homeless and drug problem. The result of enabling and accommodation has only increased the problems. Unfortunately this resolution and the proposed Safe Injection Site will further increase the homeless, drug and crime problems in our city.
I do not live in Burlington, never have, never will, and yet the people that were elected by the people of Burlington, the ones that ARE responsible for these “chickens coming home to roost”, want to reach into my wallet and help themselves to the fruits of my labor ? In a pig’s eye !
Vermont needs a new plan for the homeless. How about a bus tickets and $1,000. for a location at least 600 miles away but no State help (handouts) if they ever return.
Nope