|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
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.
Discover more from Vermont Daily Chronicle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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.