Vermont Business Magazine Yesterday, hundreds of households, including families with children and medically vulnerable community members reached their 80-day limit in the state-sponsored General Assistance Emergency Housing Program. From June 23 to July 1, data indicates that 478 households will exit from the program statewide, including 100 households in Chittenden County. The data for Chittenden County includes 35 families and 61 children, and around 40 medically vulnerable individuals.
On Monday, June 30, the city sent a letter of advocacy to the governor, signed by the mayor, members of the City Council, and the chiefs of Burlington Police and Fire Departments, calling on state officials to stop the exit of over 800 vulnerable people, which only required a rule change. Municipalities and service providers across the state are forced to manage the crisis resulting from ineffective homeless response policies.
Additionally, on Tuesday morning, the City of Burlington shared details with homeless service providers regarding a pilot project to waive the permit fee for overnight parking for up to 12 vehicles as a harm-reduction method and to provide additional oversight in a city-owned lot that allows for overnight parking. The temporary initiative will begin the evening of July 4, 2025, and run until August 15, 2025, in the gravel parking lot at Perkin’s Pier.
Vehicles will be required to register for a permit, sign an agreement, abide by existing ordinance, and have a valid license and registration. The city will manage oversight and enforcement of parking in the same manner it currently does, and with additional patrols by the Burlington Police Department. Vehicles will be required to vacate the lot by 8:00 am daily. Those who want to begin accessing Safe Overnight Parking on July 4 will have to request a permit by 12:00 PM on Thursday, July 3.
While we recognize the challenges Burlington and the state face cannot be resolved with this initiative alone, waiving the fee for overnight parking permit for a small number of vehicles is a way to provide some level of support with very little financial impact on the City.
This temporary Safe Overnight Parking pilot is in addition to ongoing public health responses to unsheltered homelessness in the city. Previously launched initiatives include a $50,000 budget allocation in both FY25 and FY26, to support bathroom and drinking water access, waste removal, and clean up on public, non-park land. The city also opens cooling centers when temperatures rise above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
More broadly, we strongly encourage a coordinated and collaborative approach to systems-level change to resolve homelessness which includes adequate shelter capacity, development of affordable housing, and investment in supportive services aimed to prevent homelessness. Only with thoughtful and intentional planning will we truly ensure all members of our community have access to safe and secure housing.
Below, find a copy of the City’s letter to Governor Phil Scott, as well as the policy related to the Safe Overnight Parking pilot project at Perkin’s Pier.
City of Burlington Letter of Advocacy
June 30, 2025
Governor Phil Scott
Office of Governor
109 State Street, Pavilion
Montpelier, VT 05609
Dear Governor Scott,
We reach out to you on behalf of the City of Burlington and our larger community in response to the harm taking place within the City and state due to the General Assistance Emergency Housing Program changes in Act 113. As you are aware, Chittenden County has long-held roughly one-third of the State's homeless population, and while we recognize households reside in motels outside of the Greater Burlington Area, the majority of our county's unsheltered population resides within the city limits.
As a result of the statewide 80-day motel caps in Act 113, we anticipate at least 100 households will be exited from the program by July 1st in Chittenden County. Included within these households is 35 families with 61 children and 45 people with severe medical vulnerabilities.
Over the past several years, service providers, emergency responders, and local businesses have felt the direct impacts of the mass-unsheltering that have taken place in Vermont. Dozens of families with very young children and people with acute medical and mental health needs will be living in tents and sleeping on benches and sidewalks throughout the City—compounding the already crisis-level number of people living unsheltered already. This situation is untenable and unacceptable.
Burlington has responded to this worsening humanitarian crisis in the following ways and with a significant financial burden on our City budget:
- Working to identify shower sites for children, and coordinated emergency resources for families with children with local school districts
- Established weekly cross-department meetings to address the safety and public health needs of people living in camps on municipal land
- Allocated with unanimous support by the City Council, $50,000 to provide resources including toilets, handwashing stations, refuse removal, camp clean-up, and the provision of basic needs supplies to outreach teams
- Fully funded the Fire Department's Community Response Team, comprised of voluntary off-duty emergency responders, to provide response to overdose incidents and proactively engage people with complex medical issues, many of whom are unsheltered
- Hosted forums with neighborhoods, local businesses, and service providers to hear and respond to community-wide concerns
- Provided City funding to CVOEO's Community Resource Center to serve as a low-barrier daytime shelter
- Provided City funding to expand our county's Coordinated Entry System
- Convened regular meetings of outreach providers from multiple agencies to coordinate efforts
- Operated the Burlington extreme cold weather shelter during the 2024–2025 season, serving over 200 people when temperatures reach -10 degrees
The City's investment in responding to unsheltered homelessness has been significant and is unsustainable. We cannot continue to effectively respond to the number of people living unsheltered, and there will be dire and life-threatening consequences as the seasons rapidly change.
We know we must work to bring more housing of all kinds on-line, and Burlington will continue to be a willing and active partner in this collaborative effort. Motels, hotels, and shelters are only band-aids for Vermont's housing crisis, but unfortunately, they appear to be the only way we will meet the urgent need for shelter right now.
We recognize that you are not solely responsible for the ongoing unsheltering of vulnerable households, and that the changes to the General Assistance Program within Act 113 originated in the legislature and received approval from both chambers.
As leaders of Vermont's largest municipality, and in partnership with service providers we call on you, as Vermont's Governor to take these immediate actions:
- Use your power under the state's emergency management provisions (20 V.S.A. § 1) to proclaim a state of emergency and direct the Vermont Agency of Human Services to use funding to provide within each region of the state 24-hour, trauma-informed, safe, accessible, stable, and non-congregate emergency shelter for vulnerable Vermonters facing exit from the General Assistance Emergency Housing Program on July 1st;
- Rescind the June 4 letter from the Economic Services Division and clarify that the 80-day cap on access to the GA Program is waived during the period covered by the Executive Order 03-25
Additionally, we urge you to work in collaboration with legislative leaders to establish an inter-agency taskforce to develop sustainable, short-term housing solutions that serve as an effective bridge to permanent housing.
Our systems and our workforce are at a breaking point. We need your help. The time to act is now.
In Partnership,
Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, Mayor, City of Burlington Ben Traverse, President, City Council Gene Bergman, City Councilor, Ward 2 Shawn Burke, Chief, Burlington Police Dept. Allie Schachter, City Councilor, East District Ranjit "Buddy" Singh, City Councilor, South District Michael LaChance, Chief, Burlington Fire Dept. Sarah Carpenter, City Councilor, Ward 4 Becca Brown Mcknight, City Councilor, Ward 6 Melo Grant, City Councilor, Central District Joe Kane, City Councilor, Ward 3 Evan Litwin, City Councilor, Ward 7 Marek Broderick, City Councilor, Ward 8
BURLINGTON, Vt. - City of Burlington 7.2.2025.
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