Dear Neighbors,

The City Council will meet tomorrow, Monday, May 15th at 6:30, following a Board of Finance meeting. You can find the agenda here: http://go.boarddocs.com/vt/burlingtonvt/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CRQHTU4A1899

We'll begin with a presentation from The Board of Health on their annual report. Over the past year, the Board focused on five issues and provided recommendations as well as their next steps for each (see below).

Public forum will begin at 7:15 – you can join in-person or sign-up here to participate remotely: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/citycouncil/publicforum

There are three items on our deliberative agenda. The first is a public hearing on how we are spending federal dollars for housing and community development, as determined by representatives from our local NPAs. The second is a resolution to do planning around the April 2024 solar eclipse.

The third, and most important, is a resolution sponsored by the CDNR Committee, which I chair. This resolution comes out of a long and frustrating process and conversation that's been happening over the past 2 years. First, we had the removal and destruction of Sears Lane and the debacle that was. In February 2022, Joe Magee brought forward a proposed revision to the City's camping ordinance to address the ambiguity of our current policy. The City Council asked the City Attorney's office to present a comparison of the current ordinance and the proposal. The Mayor's Office refused to release the draft memo to the Council from May until November 2022. In November and December of 2022, the CDNR committee met with the City Staff Camps Work Group, Community Outreach Workers, and the Chittenden County Homeless Alliance. Based on stakeholder input, we tabled the proposed ordinance, but it was clear that we needed action.

Chittenden County's population of people experiencing homelessness has grown tremendously. In 2019, we had a recent historic low of people experiencing homelessness (around 340) down from around 470 in 2015. This grew to 700 people in 2021 only dropping slightly in 2022 to 668.

At the same time, the state's Motel program is expected to end over the coming weeks, with nearly 90% of participants being exited by June 30. Even with this program, we have seen increases in camping activity again in 2022 and 2023. Here is what CDNR heard on what was not working:
• The volume of people experiencing homelessness stretching supportive service resources
• Significant fatigue within city staff as well as the public on dealing with job quality and quality of life issues associated with camping and substance-use disorder
• Few broader (regional or state-level) coordination and short-term solutions to bring relief to the current situation
• Removal feeling inhumane because we are telling people they can't stay where they are but also have little to no alternatives to offer
• Few amenities easily accessible for people who camp (such as trash, bathrooms, storage) leading to public health hazards as well as repeated loss of personal belongings
• Camping clean-up is expensive, dangerous, and also very traumatic for city staff, the campers, and the public
• Removing campsites is not a long-term situation as it just replicates the problem in another location in the short-term and can also exacerbate underlying mental-health issues
• The same city positions that are working on building relationships with the campers and help them navigate other solutions is also in charge of removal making it difficult or even impossible to build trust to support campers

Therefore, this resolution asks the Administration to make updates to the City's Sheltering Policy to account for new staff positions, theCity's Community & Economic Development Office to research best practices and create recommendations to update: 1) The current sheltering on public lands policy 2) Camping options when shelter capacity has been reached, including but not limited to sanctioned camping; and, 3) Storage and bathroom access. It deliberately excludes policy changes to areas where camping is already prohibited – all parks and the urban reserve. Yet, the Mayor's Office has voiced strong opposition to this research being completed. Even if we pass it, it will be an uphill battle to action.

With the upcoming unsheltering of hundreds individuals, we know there will be an increase in camping. And we have no cohesive plan on how City staff and partners should collectively address this known influx. This brings to mind Sear's Lane where the Mayor's Office spoke to the services our 'partners' would provide without giving those same partners any warning or following their advice. Camping is not our goal, but it our reality for the foreseeable future, and not having a plan to address it in a humane way is a head-in-the-sand approach.

If you would like to see real solutions proposed and steps taken, I hope you will call into this meeting.

Zoraya, W1

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