The idyllic northeastern state being ravaged by drugs, crime and homelessness: People dont feel safe
Residents of Vermont say their famously beautiful, verdant state is increasingly blighted by homelessness, crime, drug addiction and other social problems in its bigger towns and cities.
Residents of Vermont say their famously beautiful, verdant state is increasingly blighted by homelessness, crime, drug addiction and other social problems in its bigger towns and cities.
Downtown areas of Burlington and Brattleboro, among other cities, were too dangerous to walk at night, following reports of passers-by being attacked by thugs, locals told DailyMail.com.
Some blame the crises on costly social programs in a Democrat-leaning state that has Bernie Sanders as a senator and gave President Joe Biden a 36-point landslide win in 2020.
People dont feel safe going into the cities anymore, small business owner and Republican candidate Mark Coester told DailyMail.com.
They can walk down the street and visibly see people with needles stuck in their arms. Our towns and cities are suffering, and now the feeling of hopelessness is only getting worse.
Filthy homeless encampments like this can increasingly be seen in and around Vermonts bigger towns and cities.
Its a dramatic turnaround for the idyllic Green Mountain State, in part the result of rising property prices during the pandemic.
Vermonts problems are on display in Burlington, its largest city, with some 44,000 residents, including some 350 unhoused people living on the streets or camped out on the idyllic waterfront of Lake Champlain.
Many of them congregate at night in Church Street, the beloved red-brick home to boutiques and eateries, ravaged by such drugs as fentanyl and xylazine, also known as tranq, scaring off locals.
Residents recently told Fox News that the area gets really dangerous at night.
An older woman remarked that locals dont step foot in the area after dark because people get beat up at nighttime.
Since the end of August, Burlington police have been warning residents of the need to be on guard, after a string of attacks by large groups of suspects and perpetrators, which included juveniles.
In one incident, a victim was hospitalized after being attacked in the street by a group, knocked to the ground and kicked.
In another, a juvenile from New York was shot in the torso and badly injured at a skate park on the waterfront.
Meanwhile, downtown store owners complain of a spike in retail theft.
The CVS on Church Street recorded as many as 20 thefts every day in August.
Café workers complain that even their tip jars have been swiped by thieves.
Mark Bouchett, the owner Homeport, a downtown gift and household items store, said he recently hired security because his annual loses from shoplifters hit $75,000, in an interview with YouTuber Peter Santenello.
Bouchett said thieves have become more brazen and violent in recent years, stealing with a sense of impunity.
He called for greater support from local police, so there were meaningful consequences for misbehavior in an increasingly lawless city.
Locals express concern for the growing number of homeless people in Vermont, but also worry about crime and drug abuse getting worse.
An apparently homeless person sleeps on a bench in downtown Burlington, Vermonts biggest city.
Burlington officials say theyre working with the local community and government to assist the homeless by making public housing, mental health care, shelters, and drug treatment centers more available.
But locals say they want security and more police on the streets arresting wrongdoers.
The city is working to hire more cops and funnel money back to law enforcement after budget cuts. Nearly a third of the citys force was lost to attrition.
Vermonts social problems are not confined to Burlington. Homeless encampments have also become a common sight in Brattleboro and state capital Montpelier, among other places.
The state-wide homeless count hit a record of 3,458 unhoused people this year.
Thats 163 more than the 3,295 recorded in 2023 and a staggering threefold rise against the states pre-Covid numbers.
They include 107 veterans, 737 children, 855 sufferers of mental illness, 309 people fleeing domestic or sexual violence, and 568 who had a long-term disability, researchers found in January.
The homelessness epidemic has been compounded by the end of Vermonts pandemic-era voucher program in July, which had covered the costs of motel rooms for the homeless.
In Montpelier and Barre alone, some 100 to 140 families were expected to be leaving motels this fall.
Vermont social worker and TikToker Chibi Chanwick warned that those affected would soon face snow and freezing temperatures in Vermonts harsh winters.
Im fully expecting to see a lot of elderly dead people, minor dead people, persons with disabilities who are dead, because theyre outside, and its not good, she said.
Vermonts fast-rising property costs have also been forcing families to downsize or even lose their houses and apartments.
Two security guards walk down the Church Street Marketplace in Burlington, which has boosted security amid fears of drug activity, gun violence and retail theft.
Burlington opened a shelter pod community for the homeless last year, but more people than ever are sleeping on the citys streets.
Prices soared during the pandemic, when Americans ditched major cities and opted for small towns and leafy rural areas, including in Vermont.
The state has a rental vacancy rate of just 3 percent. It needs to create 24,000 to 36,000 homes between 2025 and 2029 to meet demand, says the latest Vermont Housing Needs Assessment.
More than 90 Vermont lawmakers this month signed a letter asking Governor Phil Scott, a Republican, to declare the rising homelessness rate a state emergency and fast-track funding for temporary shelters.
We have gone far past the point where our local communities can absorb the costs, both human and financial, to deal with this in the next few months, they wrote, warning of the colder winter months ahead.
The myriad problems represent a dramatic reversal of fortunes for Vermont, which is known as the Green Mountain State and has a reputation for healthy outdoors living and strong social services.
John Klar, a farmer and former tax attorney in small-town Barton, blamed the crises on expensive and inefficient progressive policies that inequitably tax working-class Vermonters.
This has been aggravated by sanctuary city laws, reductions in police and drug interdiction, lax criminal law enforcement, and skyrocketing property values during the pandemic, Klar told DailyMail.com.
He added: Native and young Vermonters are fleeing the state in droves.
