The Burlington, Vermont City Council met Monday evening. Among their work was consideration of increasing funding to the city’s Housing Trust Fund.
Burlington, Vermont’s vacancy rate is less than 1 percent. The median sale price for a home is over half-a million dollars. About 60 percent of residents are renters and nearly a third spend more than half of their income on rent. Ward 1 Progressive Carter Neubieser cited those statistics as he put forth a resolution calling for an increase in dedicated funds for the city’s Housing Trust Fund.
“This resolution asks city staff to produce a report outlining a variety of ways we can increase funding for the Housing Trust Fund by at least $1 million, which would roughly equate to a doubling of the amount of money we invest in affordable housing,” Neubieser said. “We have an incredibly successful model that was created in the Housing Trust Fund to fund and maintain permanently affordable units in our city. And let’s say we give approximately $1 million a year into the Housing Trust Fund, that equates to less than 1 percent of our annual city budget. Even by doubling it we’re still not going to make even a 2 percent equivalent. And so I think this is very much a first step in the right direction.”
During earlier public comments most residents urged approval of the trust fund resolution. Champlain Housing Trust Chief Operating Officer Amy Demetrowitz told councilors the fund has been a critical tool supporting the development of affordable housing in the city for over three decades.
“It’s a great impactful program that has helped us build or renovate over 600 apartments in Burlington. There’s no way we could move forward with building these affordable homes for sale without trust fund dollars,” Demetrowitz said. “We applaud this resolution and the commitment to exploring new ways to expand this important resource.”
The resolution was unanimously approved.
City councilors also held a work session on a Reparations Taskforce created by the city in 2020. It was intended to study the history of slavery in Burlington and investigate the possibility of reparations. Chair Pablo Bose reported that the group has been mostly dormant during and since the pandemic.
“What has not been completed includes the following: a historical analysis of how the city of Burlington, including businesses and individuals, might have been involved in the institution of slavery including through economic means. A review of the cases and incidents of discrimination in the period following the abolition of slavery to the present in the city of Burlington as applicable to the descendants of enslaved persons. A set of recommendations on specific mechanisms and strategies for the city of Burlington to consider. Again we did not do that,” reported Bose.
Bose recommended the council reestablish the task force with clear guidelines and a narrower scope.
Councilors also held a work session on rebuilding the city police department using data-driven methods. Following the presentation, City Council President Democrat Ben Traverse cautioned that public input is also crucial.
“I know that the data tells us a certain important picture here. But I do think that if you went to most folks in Burlington to ask is the public safety picture today in alignment with the public safety picture that we saw ten years ago, they would tell you no,” Traverse said. “So, yes, the numbers are one thing. But there’s also a lot of evidence to gain from our downtown business owners, from our residents here, from our visitors to downtown and that’s not necessarily captured in the numbers.”
The Burlington City Council will hold a public information hearing Wednesday at 5:30 about the March 4th Town Meeting Day election, reviewing the school budget, revenue bonds and charter change questions.
