Ending Chronic Homelessness in Burlington by 2025
On December 16th, 2021: Mayor Miro Weinberger released a 10-Point Action Plan to End Homelessness.
The Mayor's Action Plan committed to doubling housing production over the next five years and ending chronic homelessness in Burlington by the end of 2024.
It will achieve these goals by implementing 10 initiatives, including:
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Investing at least $5 million of ARPA funds, with at least $1 million designated for initiatives to better serve the chronically homeless and $4 million to build new permanently affordable housing.
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Investing in approximately 30 shelter units and related infrastructure to create a new low-barrier facility for 2022.
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Creating a Special Assistant to End Homelessness position within the City’s Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) to provide a single point of accountability for expanded community effort.
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Strengthening through new investment Chittenden County’s “Coordinated Entry” command center team that drives weekly progress towards functional zero with a comprehensive, real-time, by-name data effort.
Click here to read the City's progress on ending homelessness.
In response to Mayor Miro Weinberger’s Ten Point Action Plan, CEDO has developed the following initiatives. Please click on the below areas of focus and investment to learn more about our work to ensure homelessness is rare and brief in Chittenden County.
By The Numbers: The Point In Time (PIT) Count
Every year, shelter and service providers count sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. All regions of the State participate in the Point In Time count on the same night.
The sheltered count is of people living in emergency shelter including hotels and motels through the General Assistance Emergency Housing Program, as well as transitional housing, and Safe Havens. The unsheltered count is of people experiencing homelessness who are living in a place not meant for human habitation such as outdoors or in a car.
The Point in Time Count in January 2022 found a 7.3% increase in persons experiencing homelessness in Vermont compared to the prior year, from 2,591 individuals to 2,780. This comes on the heels of a 133% increase from 2020 (pre-pandemic) to 2021.
Other findings:
The number of persons experiencing homelessness in a household with children increased by 36% compared to the prior year, compared to a 5% increase of people in households with adults only.
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Vermonters disproportionately experienced homelessness in 2022 compared to the general population in both Chittenden County and Statewide.
The Point In Time count in Vermont is planned, coordinated, and carried out with the support of two federally-recognized organizations, the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness and the Chittenden County Homeless Alliance.
