An official city notice hanging against the building’s south wall warns that “no camping is permitted at this location at any time.”
Posted November 1, the notice says that any belongings found on the site after 8 a.m. November 4 would be removed.
“If you do not stop camping or if you return to camp at this spot after it is cleaned up the city may pursue legal action against you,” the notice added.
Burlington City Attorney Eileen Blackwood said the advisory was posted after someone used the code enforcement website SeeClickFix to report blankets, a lawn chair and trash in the bushes next to city hall.
Because no one picked up the stuff, it was put in storage, Blackwood said. If the items are not retrieved by December 5, the city will toss them or give them away to a nonprofit.
The encampment formed in July after the renovation of City Hall Park began, displacing homeless people who were accustomed to spending much of their day there.
Some told Seven Days they felt they were being evicted by an unnecessary project in the park. They vowed to stay at the spot next to the south door of city hall in protest.
Complaints about trash and fights at the spot followed. In August, the city expanded the construction fencing around the park, displacing the mini-encampment but not by much. Several members of the group simply moved their chairs and blankets a dozen feet to the side. They continued to spend much of the day there through the fall — at least, until the sign went up.
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It is amazing that complaints on *a phone app* were the decisive enforcement factor here, not the actual existence of the problem, downtown, directly adjacent to City Hall, staring Chittenden leadership in the face every day.
“they felt they were being evicted by an unnecessary project in the park”
Evicted? Is it really “evicted” to be stopped in the commission of an ordinance violation and trespass?
22-7 Camping in parks prohibited.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to camp in any public park in the city unless otherwise authorized by this code. Camping may occur at public areas designated as campsites by the parks and recreation department.
(b) The term “to camp” shall include the placing of any bedding, sleeping bag or other material at a site to serve as a sleeping area; the placing of any tent, lean-to, other structure or vehicle at a site to serve as a sleeping or living area; or the use of any public park for sleeping between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.
At least the city posted the places to try and apply for housing even though the shelters are full. A lot of them are against going to those places to try and get housing for some reason.
These folks should go camp on Miro’s front lawn.
“These folks should go camp on Miro’s front lawn.”
Or maybe yours.
Homeless must remain visible, in full sight, to challenge City to work toward housing for all. These people have courage. They are saying LOOK AT US.
It’s not camping, its illegal homesteading on public property
Actually Lea, what they are saying is; “spare change? Gotta dollar? Gimme something for nothin”
Some of the people who panhandle money get more in a day then a person that works..
Lea, there is another side to this, the ones who do not want housing and ones who as stated panhandle for money saying they need to eat. This happened to me one time, a panhandler was asking for money because he hadn’t eaten in days and was hungry. There was a deli 3 doors down the street so I told him I would buy him a sandwich at the deli. He got all upset with me and was spitting at me, he did not want the food, he wanted the money fro drugs or whatever else.
I don’t think it is fair to make assumptions as to how panhandlers spend money. I do know that making 15 bucks an hour working full time is still not enough money to live but it will get you kicked off SSDI and Medicare/Medicaid. Given that, it’s better to panhandle off the books than to work on the books.
Homelessness is a symptom of larger problems: untreated mental illness, poverty, high cost of living, people enabling the activity, etc. We seem to think that letting people “choose” to be homeless is the kind thing to do, but in reality, helping them become productive members of society (whenever possible) is the right thing to do. And sometimes, that may mean treating their mental illness without their consent. The bar for that kind of treatment is set too high’in many cases, leading to many more people being homeless and sometimes, ending up dead. If you had a choice of being homeless and not knowing who you are, or living a fulfilling life, which would you choose?
They are simply waiting for their future home to be finished. You can’t have it both ways Burlington. The virtue signal capital of the world wants everyone to know how wonderful and progressive we are. We’ve created an environment that attracts homeless people due to the services provided. One “famous” homeless man passed a few years ago and was the subject of some news write-ups. He had commented, prior to his death, that Burlington is the, “Shangri-La for homeless people”. So now we’re going to use the police or something to keep the homeless from camping where they shouldn’t? Well, only if it’s downtown actually. Then when the park gets completed….what’s gonna happen? Police shake downs of these homeless? Increased patrols even though the police have no teeth, compliments of the libs/progressives around here. Good luck! I’m grabbing the popcorn and settling in for the show. I won’t be watching it downtown, in person, because it’s unappealing to our family, for many reasons.