BURLINGTON — Police cleared out the remaining residents of the Sears Lane encampment early Friday morning, nearly two months after officials first marked the city-owned site as off-limits to trespassers.
The action, while hinted at by Mayor Miro Weinberger during a press conference last week, came as a surprise to those staying at the encampment.
During the removal, one camper was arrested on outstanding warrants, acting Police Chief Jon Murad said, while another was arrested for refusing to leave the site.
Four other campers left the site willingly, according to Murad and a statement from Weinberger.
People who were at the encampment Thursday night told VTDigger that nine people stayed overnight at Sears Lane, though three appeared to have left before the police arrived Friday morning.
In addition to the campers, one protester was arrested after chaining herself to a Department of Public Works bucket loader that was on hand to clear debris away from the lot.
The blitz began around 6 a.m. when police officers descended on the encampment and told residents they needed to leave.
Campers were told that social workers were waiting outside the fencing that surrounds the property, ready to connect them with housing resources, Murad said.
“We pursued a path of communicating with them to make certain that they understood that this was not a visit about services or more time. This was the deadline,” Murad told VTDigger. “But we did make clear that services were available and right outside the gates.”
City officials first posted a notice for trespass at the site on Oct. 26, though campers were allowed to temporarily remain there until their plans for alternate housing kicked in. For weeks afterward, some campers chose to stay at the encampment instead of in government-provided hotel rooms, saying they felt more at home at Sears Lane.
Murad, who called the clearing out a “complex operation,” said his department had been planning for weeks how it would respond if campers refused to leave Sears Lane. The chief said it was Weinberger who ordered police and other city agencies to carry out the plan Friday.
During the removal, police found three “imitation firearms,” actual ammunition and narcotics. Police seized the guns but did not take the drugs, Murad said.
“It wasn’t our task to take those into custody for a site that was going to be cleared in the way that it was,” the chief said.
While a VTDigger reporter Friday morning witnessed two city employees entering a storage container where campers’ belongings had been moved to in October, a spokesperson for Weinberger’s office said the city is not disposing of items within those containers.
If campers attempt to return to Sears Lane, they will be cited for trespassing, Murad said.
‘A very short, last effort’
Jordan Orcutt, the camper who was arrested on outstanding warrants, told VTDigger he was awakened Friday morning by his partner, Alexus Grundy, who is suing Burlington officials for closing the camp. Grundy told Orcutt that police were walking around the camp, he said.
“At first I thought she was full of shit, but then I realized she wasn’t because I heard voices,” Orcutt said.
When he came out of his dwelling, Orcutt said, he found multiple police officers waiting for him with their guns drawn.
“The first thing they told me to do was to turn around and put my hands above my head,” Orcutt said.
In a text responding to that description of events, Murad wrote: “Orcutt had confirmed warrants. He was therefore automatically placed under arrest. Arrest at gunpoint is standard for a person being extracted from an enclosed location.”
Orcutt was arraigned in Chittenden Superior Court and later released. Court officials did not respond to requests for information about the charges.
Orcutt and Grey Barreda, who is suing the city with Grundy, tried to visit Sears Lane later in the day, but police prevented them from accessing the site, they said.
A crew from the Department of Public Works spent hours hauling debris away from the site. A handful of more compact structures that were claimed by some of the residents were set aside.
Sarino Macri, a former resident of the camp who has since moved into a state-provided hotel room, told VTDigger he made an agreement with officials to preserve a structure that belonged to him, though he is unsure how he will transport it away from the site.
Murad defended the city’s actions Friday morning as necessary to protect the former residents of Sears Lane, citing the past testimony of Burlington’s fire chief that the conditions at Sears Lane posed a deadly threat to residents.
“This was a very short, last effort because frankly there comes a point where the other avenues have been exhausted,” Murad said.
“I’m hopeful that some of the people who did not avail themselves of those avenues because the encampment continued to exist now will,” Murad continued, “and that they will be placed in housing that is safer and warmer … than the parlous conditions in which they were living in Sears Lane.”
Weinberger, through a spokesperson, declined an interview with VTDigger but maintained in a statement that the removal was necessary for public health. In the statement, he also teased a set of housing initiatives he is expected to announce next week.
“All that has happened over the course of 2021 at Sears Lane is a reflection of a systemic failure of our housing system and the efforts to end chronic homelessness,” Weinberger said. “As a community and as a region, we must and we can find a better way.”
