Burlington plans to put homeless pod community downtown

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - We now know where Burlington plans to put a proposed homeless shelter pod community.

For weeks, the city said it wanted to build 30 pods and they intended to break ground in April. It’s part of the mayor’s 10-point plan to reduce homelessness in the Queen City announced after he shut down the Sears Lane encampment in the city’s South End.

We’ve been asking where those pods will go and they wouldn’t tell us. Now, we know it’s on Elmwood Avenue. In a posting on the city’s Public Works Commission website, the city says it considered 10 sites and this parking lot is their pick.

The city wants to house the homeless here for three years, starting as soon as May 1. And the city says they signed contracts to buy those 30 pods and they are already being built.

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