The city of Burlington has agreed to change its policies around the confiscation and destruction of the property of homeless residents in a $25,000 settlement with the ACLU of Vermont.
The suit was filed in 2017 by a Burlington resident whose belongings were removed from the encampment where he was staying and destroyed by the city without notifying him or giving him time to remove his possessions.
The ACLU filed suit on behalf of Brian Croteau Sr. after Croteau first learned in October 2017 that the city was planning to remove his belongings from the site on city-owned land where he was staying. The ACLU got a temporary restraining order from the court, allowing Croteau to stay where he was, but after the judge denied their motion for a preliminary injunction, the city demolished his site — before Croteau had a chance to move all his belongings.
“In the course of all that, Mr. Croteau lost a number of belongings he hadn’t yet been able to remove from the site,” said Lia Ernst, a staff attorney with the ACLU.
Several months later, Ernst said, Croteau was sheltering at a different site, but when he returned after being away for the day, he found that the city had once again removed all his belongings with no notice.
The new rules ensure that kind of thing won’t happen to Croteau — or anyone else — ever again. Burlington agreed to a policy change that would require the city to inform people of the specific reason their sheltering site is being considered for removal, provide an opportunity to object to the removal, give notice before taking property from the sites, and then store that property for at least 30 days.
“What this policy does is create a very clear set of steps before any removal would happen,” Ernst said.
She noted that when homeless people’s possessions are seized, that often includes life-sustaining items like tents, sleeping bags, medications, food and clothing that can be hard for them to replace.
The city agreed to pay Croteau $25,000 and medication costs to help reimburse him for his lost property.
“Punishing individuals for sleeping in public when they have nowhere else to go violates the U.S. Constitution and goes against Burlington’s values that all residents be treated with respect and compassion,” Jared Carter, a lawyer working with the ACLU on the case said in a statement.
This is the third lawsuit the ACLU has settled with Burlington in just over two years over its treatment of low-income and homeless residents. In the first two, the group challenged the city’s role in evicting tenants who called asking for police assistance “too frequently,” and its “no trespass” ordinance that barred people from visiting City Hall Park who had committed prior offenses there.
Combined, the three settlements resulted in the city making more than $70,000 in payments.
“All of these cases speak to the same exact question of holding the city to its promise to treat all residents with dignity, respect and fundamental fairness,” Ernst said. “Through all these cases, we think Burlington has become a better place for all of its residents to live.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington settles with ACLU over destruction of homeless man’s property.