The 2020 ECOS annual report presents two very different versions of Chittenden County: one for white residents, and another for Black, Indigenous and other people of color.
The report, published yearly by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commision since 2013, tracks progress toward a set of broad community goals. ECOS stands for environment, community, opportunity and sustainability.
This year’s report, published last week, places a heightened focus on race and equity, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.
The findings revealed several alarming disparities between white and BIPOC residents, which run counter to the “vision for a healthy, inclusive and prosperous future” for Chittenden County residents, said Regina Mahony, planning program manager.
“It’s pretty clear from this data that that is not reachable for BIPOC residents,” Mahony said. “That’s a strong takeaway from us, and it’s a call to action for us to try and address these disparities.”
The report shows annual median income for Black and African American households is less than half that of white, non-Hispanic households ($37,004 to $78,292).
Fourteen percent of BIPOC third-graders scored proficient and above on the 2018 Smarter Balanced Language Arts Test, one of Vermont’s standardized tests, compared to 86% of white students. Third-grade reading level is suggested to be heavily linked to later education and life outcomes.
Following nationwide trends, the BIPOC community in Chittenden County has also been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Black, Indigenous and people of color contracted Covid-19 at almost triple the rate of white residents, according to data from the Vermont Department of Health, accounting for one-third of Covid cases despite making up 12% of the population.
These disparities are even more striking when considered beside Chittenden County’s population growth this decade. Eighty-three percent of the 7,069 new people in the county between 2010 and 2019 identify as Hispanic, Black or African American, and/or American Indian and Alaska Native, according to the 2019 American Community Survey.Â
The report is prepared by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, on behalf of its other partners in ECOS: the Burlington city government, Greater Burlington Industrial Corp., Lake Champlain Chamber, UVM Medical Center, University of Vermont, United Way of Northwest Vermont, and Vermont Department of Health.
The 2020 ECOS report is different from its predecessors. Before this year, Mahony said, very few of the statistics in the report were disaggregated by race.
The focus on racial disparities “stemmed out of the great steps toward identifying racism as a public health crisis that Burlington took the lead on,” Mahony said.
Burlington officials declared racism a public health crisis in July 2020, shortly after the city council passed a resolution to reduce police staffing levels.
Mayor Miro Weinberger appointed Tyeastia Green in February as Burlington’s first director of racial equity, inclusion and belonging but faced backlash after removing Green from her role overseeing a study of the Burlington Police Department. Weinberger quickly reinstated Green at the helm.
The report also included statistics, originally published in January by the Vermont Commission on Women, that demonstrate the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on women.
Women were responsible for 63.8% of unemployment claims made in January, and 73% of Vermonters who lost their jobs between mid-November 2020 and early January were women.
The commission also found that the poverty rate for Black women in Vermont is 27% — worse than the national poverty rate for Black women and twice that of white women.
“Covid didn’t create any of these problems. It just exposed these problems,” Lisa Senecal, chair of the Vermont Commission on Women, told VTDigger in January.