Council also says safe injection site would require changing city bylaws

By Guy Page

The Burlington City Council is calling for faster removal of unauthorized vagrant encampments in city parks and other areas where camping is prohibited, urging the administration to begin enforcement actions within about 24 hours of discovering an illegal campsite.

The proposed action follows the cancellation of a Sunday, July 19 Burlington Concert Band concert in Battery Park due to disorderly vagrants who regard the park as their home.

A more detailed news story, including Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak’s ambivalent response to the council plan, will be published soon in the Burlington Daily News, and will be discussed Tuesday at 12:30 PM on Chronicle Conversations on WVMT AM 620 and wvmtradio.com. 

The directive is part of a broader ‘Burlington Forward’ resolution on managing temporary encampments and evaluating their effectiveness. Under the policy, city officials would provide notice that an encampment is subject to removal and set a deadline for enforcement as soon as reasonably practicable. The council said the timeline should give individuals enough time to make alternative arrangements while protecting public health, public safety, environmental resources, and public access to parks and other shared spaces.

The policy includes several accommodations to vagrants, including city-sanctioned encampments. But it also states that “Lasting compassion is measured not by our willingness to tolerate harm and suffering, but by our determination to end it.”

And after many pages of proposed services aka carrots, the 21-page document then waves a stick, too.

Before an encampment is removed, the city would provide information about local social service organizations, Vermont’s Coordinated Entry housing system, other available community resources, and where any collected personal property will be stored. 

The resolution also calls for tracking performance measures such as occupancy, average length of stay, successful transitions into shelter or permanent housing, and emergency service responses.

The council noted that Burlington’s ordinances prohibit camping in public parks, including the Urban Reserve, and said unauthorized encampments in prohibited areas are inconsistent with the city’s policies.

Overdose prevention centers aka safe injection sites restricted

The Council’s plan also calls for amending city development bylaws full regulatory review of Overdose Prevention Centers, approved for state funding by the Legislature but so far unpopular with all potential Burlington neighborhoods. 

“The City Council declares that any proposal to authorize overdose prevention centers within the City of Burlington should proceed only through amendment of the Comprehensive Development Ordinance following public notice, public hearing, and legislative action by the City Council.”

The plan also declares the sites must not be located downtown.