SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – South Burlington authorities spent Wednesday afternoon cleaning up a homeless encampment, one of nearly a dozen around the area. It comes at the same time as local shelters say they are at capacity.
Wednesday afternoon south Burlington police joined by a community outreach member from the Howard Center hit the woods off of Joy Drive in South Burlington to shut down a homeless encampment.
“Over time, it just gets bigger and bigger, with more debris and more issues, and that causes problems,” said South Burlington Police Sgt. Greg Short.
No residents were at the camp Wednesday but needles, open containers, and suspected stolen goods were found as crews cleaned up.
“When you have that type of behavior done in close proximity to local businesses, to residents, to a high school — and to include a day care center that’s not 50 to 100 feet away from here — it raised some eyebrows and needed a police response to see what was going on,” Short said. He says that they fielded complaints for months from the owners of the property — Edge Sports and Fitness — and other nearby businesses and residents. “We have had a few people over the course of the last couple months that we have located here and have given ample warning to move along. This is private property. The property owners have rights to say who can and cannot be on their property.”
This comes as the state and social service agencies continue to look for solutions to address the homeless crisis. “We would love to help serve more folks. We are limited both in funding and physical space as well,” said Jonathan Farrell with the Committee on Temporary Shelter.
He says each of their overnight shelters is at capacity and their day shelter is busy too. Farrell says over the past three months they have had over 600 unique visits by individuals at the day station and an increase in people showing up with frostbite and other weather-related injuries. At the same time, he says they are being told to prepare to see more people once winter is over. “Our colleagues at the state are looking for some solutions to this problem as well and put out a call for local shelters to do a little more come April 1st when the motel program again winds down,” he said.
Back in South Burlington, questions remain about how to move forward. “How do we uphold the law? How do we help out these individuals who own this private property? But how do we help these individuals who feel they are forced to live in the woods?” Sgt Short said.
The Scott administration has proposed to the Legislature the addition of more shelters around the state as well as extending the hotel program once again.
Related Stories:
Vt. House bill would ease restrictions on multi-unit apartments
Scott administration proposes extension of hotel-motel program
Burlington officials say encampments monitored for health and safety
Burlington officials investigate early morning fires at CityPlace, homeless encampment
WCAX Investigates: Burlington’s intractable homeless crisis
Burlington looks at allowing camping in city parks to address homeless crisis