This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
The city of Burlington decided on Thursday to “indefinitely pause” a sanctioned parking area for people experiencing homelessness before the initiative had even begun.
The “Safe Overnight Parking pilot project” at Perkins Pier along the city’s waterfront was slated to begin on Friday, July 4. City officials announced its creation on Tuesday, as a response to a round of evictions from the state’s motel voucher program that has primarily impacted families with children and individuals with severe medical needs.
But on Thursday afternoon, city officials decided to halt the project, in response to “substantial community feedback, and out of concern for the safety of program participants based on threatening comments made by members of the public on various online platforms,” according to a city press release.
Joe Magee, deputy chief of staff for Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, said city officials received a significant number of concerned messages from “residents, and businesses, and folks who have boats docked” near the Maple Street lot.
Social media posts expressing hostile sentiments about the project also led city officials to worry about the safety of unhoused people staying there, Magee said. The police department planned to do additional patrols of the area, Magee said, but the parking lot would not have had a “stationary overnight security presence.”
The city had received two inquiries from people who had wanted to park overnight in the lot, which was supposed to have space for twelve vehicles, Magee said. Officials had not yet approved any registrations for it.
Between June 23 and July 1, state officials anticipated 140 adults and 61 children would lose access to the motel voucher program in the Burlington area. The current wave of evictions from the program is in large part the result of an executive order expiring that had protected families with children and people with acute medical needs, like those who are homebound or receiving cancer treatment.
Burlington officials estimate that hundreds of people are already sleeping outdoors or in vehicles in the city, with tents tucked along the waterfront bike path an increasingly common sight.
“The city does not have the resources or staff to be able to… address the shortage of shelter alone,” Magee said. “We really need state partnership to come up with more tangible solutions.”
