Burlington city officials are taking steps to address living conditions at the University of Vermont after a student group started a public campaign to pressure leaders to act.
Students have reported finding leaks, pests and mold in their dorms and say UVM is slow to address the problems. Colleges are exempt from routine inspections by city officials and must instead certify every year that their dorms meet the city’s strict housing code. But UVM hasn’t done so for more than a decade.
A resolution unanimously approved by the Burlington City Council on Monday seeks to create more accountability. It asks both UVM and Champlain College to submit details about their inspection protocols and to provide data on housing code violations over the past two years, among other steps. The measure was sent to the council’s Ordinance Committee for further review.
Officials from both UVM and Champlain College attended Monday’s meeting and answered some — but not all — of councilors’ questions.
“This resolution is not about antagonizing our institutions. It is about accountability on their side and the city’s,” said Councilor Marek Broderick (P-Ward 8), a UVM student who sponsored the resolution. “I am optimistic and confident … that we can come together and get to work on this urgent matter.”
Broderick introduced the measure in response to advocacy by the UVM Student Tenant Union, which organized last year out of frustration with the condition of student housing. Members of the group have shared horror stories of dorm living at recent council meetings, Monday night included.
Student Evan Bray recalled having chronic sinus infections from the mold and dust in UVM dorms. Bray, who came to the meeting using crutches, said elevators are consistently broken.
Issues in the dorms “don’t get fixed until somebody gets really angry and yells at you guys about it,” Bray said, referring to the council. “There should be some system other than that.”
The council resolution doesn’t propose a new system; rather, it first seeks to get more information about the current one. The measure asks UVM and Champlain to submit forms used during dorm inspections; information about inspectors’ qualifications; and details about how complaints are prioritized and handled, including a count of housing code violations dating back to 2023.
The resolution asks the city’s Department of Permitting & Inspections to create a template for the colleges to use during dorm checks. And it seeks permission for city officials to tour residence halls during the students’ upcoming winter break.
It also seeks to clarify whether the city can legally require colleges to comply with its housing code. The city maintains it has that authority, but Amanda Clayton, UVM’s executive director of facilities management, challenged that notion in a letter to city officials earlier this year.
At the meeting, Councilor Evan Litwin (D-Ward 7) attempted to grill Clayton and Erica Caloiero, UVM’s vice provost for student affairs, about that stance. When pressed, both officials referred him to UVM’s lawyers.
Councilor Becca Brown McKnight (D-Ward 6) wasn’t impressed.
“We heard UVM plead the fifth on some very direct, reasonable questions that were following up on the university’s own written communications to the city,” she said. “It proves the point that we need some more transparency and daylight into this system.”
UVM officials maintained that they have a robust inspection program but provided few details about how it works. Asked how the university could improve its system, Clayton said the school could better educate students about how to report housing issues using an online portal. But she added that there are simply parts of the housing code that don’t apply to UVM, such as one about security deposits.
“The language isn’t written for the environment that we operate in,” she said.
Nic Anderson, assistant vice president of planning and operations at Champlain College, said the school conducts room inspections twice a year and submits results to the city annually. He said the self-certification process works — if the institution follows through on it.
Councilor Melo Grant (P-Central District) said UVM may believe its dorms are well maintained, but the reality is far different. Grant said she recently toured residence halls and witnessed mold on the ceiling and walls of several bathrooms.
“You have a mold emergency,” she said. “Period, full stop.”
Councilor Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2), who chairs the Ordinance Committee, praised the students for bringing the issues to the council’s attention. But he warned them that the hard work isn’t over.
“You have to be dogged, because these are systemic problems that can only be solved with systemic solutions,” he said. “That means we have to stay on that task.”
Earlier in the meeting, councilors discussed the elimination of the Burlington CARES program, which was designed to send mental health clinicians to certain emergency calls.
Launched last year, the program was funded by a state grant that will expire in December. City officials weren’t able to find replacement funding, and two city staffers will be laid off as a result.
On Monday, Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak faced criticism — including from members of her own party — that councilors weren’t informed earlier of the program’s impending demise. Councilor Grant, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said she learned about the cuts from one of the program’s clients.
“There didn’t seem to be a plan to notify us, and that’s deeply concerning to me,” she said.
Mulvaney-Stanak’s office has said other entities, including Howard Center’s Street Outreach Team, are already doing work being performed by CARES and are better equipped to do so. The city recently allocated nearly $250,000 to the outreach team, but the money will only backfill recent funding cuts and won’t pay to hire more workers.
Still, Howard Center officials who attended Monday’s meeting by Zoom said the nonprofit has the capacity to take on the team’s caseload.
Some councilors weren’t convinced. Grant, for one, said she knows of some CARES clients who can’t or won’t be served by Howard Center. Councilor Bergman said he’d like to see a list of services provided by both CARES and Street Outreach to determine the overlap and potential gaps once CARES formally disbands next month.
Councilors’ concerns led them to postpone a planned vote on an agreement with Howard Center, which would require the Street Outreach Team to keep data on calls for service, among other items. The council will take up the matter at its December 1 meeting.
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