BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Plans for Vermont’s first overdose prevention center in Burlington continue to take shape, but officials have still not figured out where the center will be located.
WCAX obtained dozens of documents from the city and state that show extensive planning for what the center will look like. Theresa Vezina, the city’s special assistant on the project, says they still need more community input to decide on a location.
“We do want the center to be in an area where people who need the service can access the service,” Vezina said.
Reporter Ike Bendavid: Does that mean downtown?
Theresa Vezina: Well, I can’t really say for sure, because there’s no site that a location that’s been selected. But I would say that the data shows that the majority of overdoses happening in Burlington are happening in the downtown region. Do we want this to be on the marketplace? No.
There are already overdose prevention centers in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island. But Burlington, with a population of only 45,000, will become the smallest city in the country to operate such a site.
WCAX visited an overdose prevention center in Montreal earlier this spring to see how a center operates and how neighbors feel about it. “What they do is they provide a safer alternative for the individuals that are using and for the community around them,” said Alex Berthelot with Cactus Montreal.
But Burlington is still ironing out how its center will operate. “So, what we’ll start with here in Burlington is the minimum viable product to open and kind of then grow from there -- assess what needs to change, what needs to be added, what isn’t working, and try to bring it in,” Vezina said.
The city selected Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform to be the primary operator. The city reached out to over a dozen community-based organizations. Vezina says they were the only ones to apply. “It’s complicated. This is a complex project. It’s the first one in Vermont, it’s the third in the country. It is, as people know, controversial to some degree,” she said.
VCJR’s project vision states that their current location off Pine Street won’t work for the OPC, and they it it will take a lot of planning to pull it off. They say they are seeking a fixed site downtown that will allow people to inject or smoke drugs. There will also be areas for observation, assessment, and treatment.
“It’s so much more than supervision of drug use. It’s actually a community center, right, that is going to allow us to provide expansive services under one roof for some of our highest-risk, most marginalized community , who don’t feel like they have a community. We want to provide a community,” Vezina said. She says the goal is to reduce harm and to be a good neighbor. “To expect that the overdose prevention center is going to do away with all the things is unrealistic. It’s not a panacea, but we do plan to hopefully bring forth some innovative ideas and ways that we can address the community concerns and have actually a positive impact on our community.”
Vezina says state money should be available starting next month for community outreach and a neighborhood impact study. She says they hope to have a location identified by the end of the year.
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