BURLINGTON — As the clock struck 9 on Tuesday morning, the world didn’t change much for residents of the Sears Lane encampment.
It was still cold. It was still rainy. And many people still planned to sleep that night on the rugged South End plot that has become a flashpoint in the debate over how Burlington should respond to homelessness.
At least on paper, though, 9 a.m. was significant. Starting then, the campers were in violation of a city order — first issued Oct. 14, then amended Oct. 18, by Mayor Miro Weinberger — and were now subject to a trespass citation for residing on the site.
But after working with residents one-on-one to help them find temporary shelter, city officials say they don’t plan on enforcing that order. For now, residents will be allowed to continue camping at the site until their new plan for housing kicks in.
Those plans look different for the roughly 20 people who formerly called Sears Lane home, though all rely on funds Burlington received from the state Department of Children and Families. Some accepted transportation vouchers to find housing in another state, while others will be provided recreational vehicles to live in somewhere besides Sears Lane, said Samantha Sheehan, a spokesperson for Weinberger.
The majority will move into hotels for the next 30 days, Sheehan said.
One of those hotel-bound campers was Noah Lincoln, who — as the rain beat down Tuesday morning — welcomed his upcoming move.
“I’ll be happy to get out of here,” Lincoln said as he loaded items onto a trailer.
Theft was common at the camp, Lincoln said, and he was sick of having his stuff stolen.
But other residents lamented the impending closure, describing the encampment as a warm community where residents look out for each other.
“There are really good people here,” said Carol, a camper who declined to provide VTDigger her last name.
At 8:30 a.m., while the sound of “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show” boomed from a nearby radio, Carol said she didn’t know which of the options she and her husband would take.
But by noon, city officials said everyone at the camp had accepted help from social workers on the site.
Social workers were not the only visitors to Sears Lane on Tuesday morning. About 75 demonstrators descended on the site to mark the 9 a.m. deadline, bearing signs and a bullhorn.
The protesters gathered in a circle to decry the camp’s closure with speeches and chants like, “Hey hey, ho ho, these bulldozers got to go! Hey hey, ho ho, these are our neighbors’ homes!”
Grey Barreda and Alexus Grundy, two residents of the camp, are fighting the camp’s disbandment in Chittenden Superior Court. In an interview, Barreda said politicians like Weinberger and City Councilor Joan Shannon, D-South District, have stirred unfounded fears about the camp among city residents.
“The thing I felt immediately coming here is deep love,” he said.
But while Barreda expressed gratitude for the energetic protesters (“Ho ho, hey hey, Sears Lane is here to stay!”), other Sears Lane residents didn’t appreciate the gesture.
Instead of helping campers clean up, Lincoln said, the demonstrators were getting in the way of the move-out.
“They’re here for their own reasons, not ours,” said Lincoln, who busily cleaned the camp while nursing a broken thumb.
Only a handful of protesters remained when the rain stopped around 11:30 a.m., leaving a host of rainbow pools — streaked with gasoline runoff — in its wake.
City workers arrived later in the day to post signs communicating the trespass order and unlock two storage containers where campers could keep their smaller belongings.
The city plans to use American Rescue Plan Act funds to install fencing at the site on Thursday in an effort to protect larger items that campers want to store but cannot fit in the containers, Sheehan said.
The lawsuit brought by Barreda and Grundy is scheduled to be heard Thursday at 1 p.m. in Chittenden Superior Court.
