Earlier this month, the City of Burlington accepted a $2.2 million state grant to open the state’s first overdose-prevention center, a place where people would be able to use drugs under supervision.
The next step is deciding where it will go.
The most obvious place to put a “safe consumption” site is downtown, where most overdoses occur. But there’s some fierce opposition to that idea on the city council, which will ultimately vote on the chosen location. Further complicating matters, some councilors are now questioning whether the city should open a center at all.
The challenge is to find a spot that’s both accessible to those who need it and acceptable to those who fear it. In a city that has struggled to manage the drug crisis with compassion while preserving a sense of public safety, there are no obvious answers.
“This has to be both data-driven and community-driven at the same time,” said Theresa Vezina, the city staffer charged with setting up the center. “Being able to strike that balance is the goal.”
The debate over location is only the latest front in Burlington’s long battle to open a center. Councilors first discussed the idea in 2018 and have since endorsed the concept in several bipartisan votes. Both former mayor Miro Weinberger, a Democrat, and the current Progressive one, Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, have pledged support.
But higher levels of government have put up roadblocks. In 2017, former U.S. attorney for Vermont Christina Nolan pledged to prosecute operators of overdose-prevention centers under the so-called “Crack House Statute,” which prohibits “maintaining drug-involved premises.” Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, twice vetoed overdose-prevention center bills, most recently in 2024. Lawmakers were able to override the second veto and pass a bill that gave Burlington $2.2 million in opioid settlement funds to run a two-year pilot program, with oversight from the state health department.
The challenge is to find a spot that’s both accessible to those who need it and acceptable to those who fear it.
Fatal overdoses have begun to decline statewide after reaching all-time highs in 2022. But the impact of the drug crisis is evident in Burlington every day. Retail theft rates have skyrocketed, and people routinely use drugs in city parks and other public spaces. Needle litter continues to be a major concern.
Last month, city councilors passed a resolution asking police to ticket people for misbehavior in City Hall Park, including for drug use. The governor has offered to help address Burlington’s problems, but he remains opposed to overdose-prevention centers, saying he believes they “enable” drug users and will attract more of them to the city.
“I question whether they’ll ever get that off the ground,” Scott said of Burlington’s proposed center at a press conference earlier this month. “If they don’t, that would be good news from my perspective.”
Used in other countries for years, overdose-prevention centers are rare in the U.S. More than a dozen states have passed laws allowing them, but only three centers in two states have opened. That includes OnPoint in East Harlem, which Seven Days visited last year for a cover story.
Opponents have argued that the sites legitimize drug use and increase crime, though various studies — including one by former Burlington police chief Brandon del Pozo — have provided evidence to the contrary. City leaders say a center would alleviate public drug use in Burlington, reduce syringe litter and take the pressure off emergency responders who are overburdened by overdose calls.
A nonprofit, Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, would operate the site. Besides providing “safe consumption” spaces, the center would offer drop-in drug treatment and recovery programs, drug-checking services, and case management, according to Tom Dalton, the nonprofit’s executive director. Johnson Health Center, which has a clinic on Bank Street in Burlington, would provide medical and mental health care, he said.
But first, the center needs a home, and there’s no consensus on the city council about where that should be. Seven Days contacted all 12 councilors to hear their thoughts.
Several suggested pairing the center with a medical facility, such as the University of Vermont Medical Center, noting that the site in Providence, R.I., is across the street from a hospital. That idea was also endorsed by a small contingent of the Ward 3 Neighborhood Planning Assembly, which covers much of downtown.
Other councilors pointed out the center should be easily accessible and that the hospital is not, by foot or bus. Last month, cutbacks at Green Mountain Transit rerouted one of few bus routes that stopped at the hospital.
Downtown is arguably the most convenient location. It’s walkable, close to public transportation and home to a number of vacant buildings that could theoretically be repurposed. Other social services — including a homeless shelter, food shelf and needle exchange — are already located there or close by.
That idea is a no-go for Kelly Devine, executive director of the Burlington Business Association. She pointed to the city’s 2013 downtown master plan, which explicitly discourages expanding social services in the area because having too many can become “unmanageable.”
“Any time we decide to put those kinds of services in close proximity to our economic district, I think we need to be very thoughtful about it,” Devine said.
For some councilors, however, downtown is the only realistic option. “It has to be where the activity is,” said Councilor Melo Grant, a Progressive whose Central District seat covers most of downtown and the Old North End. Councilor Sarah Carpenter (D-Ward 4) agreed but also floated the hospital idea.
Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak, meanwhile, said she’d support a center downtown but not necessarily in the central business district. She has previously said her own neighborhood in the Old North End is already overburdened by social programs.
Council President Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5) and Councilor Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2) said they would consider downtown but stressed first wanting to hear from experts and see data that suggests it’s the best place. Councilor Marek Broderick (P-Ward 8) said he’s open to locations besides downtown as long as other services, including the bus, are nearby.
Councilors Allie Schachter (D-East District) and Carter Neubieser (P-Ward 1) said it was too early to comment. Councilor Joe Kane (P-Ward 3) didn’t respond to interview requests, and Councilor Evan Litwin (D-Ward 7) declined to comment.
Three other councilors — Becca Brown McKnight (D-Ward 6), Mark Barlow (D-North District) and Buddy Singh (D-South District) — were largely opposed to putting the facility downtown, citing the effect of crime and disorder on local businesses. McKnight added more conditions: A center shouldn’t go near the waterfront or schools. “I recognize that’s a tough map,” she conceded.
McKnight also declined to say whether she’d support a center in her own ward, which covers portions of the South End and Hill Section. Most others said yes in principle or, per Barlow and Singh, that they’d need to speak to constituents or see proof that a location in their districts would work before endorsing it.
The same three councilors also questioned whether Burlington should open a center at all — though all three voted to accept the money to establish it. Barlow said he fears the site would bring more troubled people to Burlington and that the city is already shouldering too much of the state’s drug crisis. Singh, who has a close friend with addiction issues, said recovery programs are the only way to solve the problem. “Harm reduction to me is a Band-Aid,” he said.
Dalton, the VCJR director, countered that harm reduction programs such as overdose-prevention centers can help people get into recovery.
“Hopefully the community will be able to recognize what an asset this is going to be,” he said.
Of course, the debate could become moot if the feds intervene. In July, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that threatened to claw back federal housing funds from entities that operate the centers. It also directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to consider suing their operators. In 2019, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney filed suit against a nonprofit seeking to open a center in Philadelphia. That case has been tied up in court for years.
In response to questions from Seven Days, acting U.S. Attorney for Vermont Michael Drescher wouldn’t say whether Bondi had directed his office to investigate Burlington’s plans. But he made his position on them clear.
“By passing the Controlled Substances Act, Congress made it illegal to open, lease, rent, use, maintain, or manage a place for others to use drugs,” Drescher wrote in a statement, noting that center operators may be subject to prosecution.
So far, those threats haven’t cowed city councilors, who by and large said the city should move forward with its plans. Mulvaney-Stanak noted that many of Trump’s executive orders have been blocked by federal judges.
“We’re living in very unprecedented times, and we’re proceeding as carefully as one can,” the mayor said.
City officials said they are planning a robust process to collect feedback but aren’t ready to announce a timeline yet. People with substance-use disorder will be interviewed about the services they’d like to have at the center and how far they’d travel to use it. Mental health experts and emergency responders will be asked to weigh in, and the public will be invited to attend community meetings and fill out a survey, which will be launched in November. The feedback, including opinions on where the center should go, will be summarized in a report to be reviewed both by the health department and city council.
Vezina, the city staffer charged with setting up the center, says the city will collect feedback before and after the location is decided and again after the center opens.
The decision will also take practical matters into consideration. The ideal building needs to be large enough to accommodate the center’s programs but not cost too much to renovate. The operator, VCJR, will need to rent a building, but the landlord would have to approve of its intended use. And because overdose-prevention centers aren’t yet written into city bylaws, the proposed location would have to survive a rezoning process that introduces more opportunity for opposition.
All of those unknowns mean the center, originally expected to launch this year, isn’t opening anytime soon. Mulvaney-Stanak said she doesn’t have a new target date.
Vezina said discussions about the center will be complex, but she remains optimistic that Burlington will find a solution.
“There’s a lot more conversations to be had,” she said. “We’re all going to, at the end of the day, make some compromises.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Location Unknown | Burlington has the money to open an overdose-prevention center. Now comes the hard part: where to put it.”
This article appears in Sept 24-30 2025.