Burlington’s Howard Center intends to shut down its sterile syringe distribution program, and the services surrounding it, this summer, according to a letter from its CEO and confirmed by the Health Department.
The Safe Recovery Program is one arm of the substance use treatment, mental health treatment, and developmental disabilities services that the Burlington nonprofit offers. The program provides people with free, sterile needles to prevent the spread of blood-borne disease. It also offers narcan, drug testing strips, overdose prevention training, and linkages to care management. The Safe Recovery Program also hosts a clinic, offers Hepatitis A/B vaccination and testing, as well as medications for opioid use disorder. They provide counseling and care management.
All of these programs are set to shutter this summer, when the Howard Center’s current contract for the syringe services program with the Vermont Agency of Human Services ends on June 30. The center will continue offering its other services for mental health care, developmental disabilities services and substance use treatment.
“This decision is not a reflection of the importance or effectiveness” of syringe services programs, Howard Center CEO Sandra McGuire wrote in an email Thursday to Chittenden County lawmakers and Burlington city officials. “Rather, it reflects Howard Center’s need to steward our limited resources in those areas where Howard Center is best positioned to make a significant impact in the future.”
Six employees will be affected by the closure, but offered other positions within the Howard Center to avoid layoffs, according to Katherine Levasseur, a spokesperson for the center.
The nonprofit center is the state’s designated agency for mental health and developmental disability services in Chittenden County — meaning it receives state funds to coordinate this care locally. But it has faced consistent challenges with the high costs of staffing and operating its other programs that support people with mental health challenges and substance use disorders.
In July, the center announced it would cut over 50 staff roles and tighten some programming, citing years of multimillion dollar operating deficits.
The syringe service program has been controversial in Burlington, with many neighbors concerned about how many syringes end up as litter and not properly discarded or returned to the center.
The Howard Canter and the Vermont Department of Health reaffirmed they are working to transition the syringe service program to other providers.
“Ensuring access to these services and a responsible transition for the people who rely on them is extremely important to us,” McGuire wrote in her Thursday email, citing that the center has been working with for “several months” to continue the service elsewhere.
The state said it learned of the Howard Center’s intention not to renew its contract on Wednesday.
Kyle Casteel, a spokesperson for the department, said that the Health Department will continue working internally and with other community providers to prevent any interruption in local access to these services that fell under the Howard Center Safe Recovery Program.
The state provides Syringe Service Program funding to three other organizations in Vermont, including Vermont Cares, which already operates some mobile services in parts of Chittenden County.
