BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Evictions are skyrocketing. We told you earlier this week about a new report that says they are up 45% in the last five years.
Some evictions were on hold during the early years of the pandemic which kept people in their homes for longer. But that ended, and evictions started back up. In Chittenden County, they jumped from 142 in 2022 to 300 in 2023. And they continue to climb.
Our Ike Bendavid was with sheriffs deputies on Friday as they carried out a court-ordered eviction.
“The last couple years things have really amped up with these,” Chittenden County Sheriff Daniel Gamelin said.
Extra deputies were called in because police were at the home where the eviction is taking place just two weeks ago to round up drugs and guns.
“This house is a known drug house with bad people in it,” the sheriff said.
The tenants face eviction due to that illegal activity and unpaid rent.
Deputies surround the house with guns drawn. They knock and get no response, and waste no time busting down the door.
Deputy Sheriff Derek Kendrew confronts the people inside.
“So here’s what will happen. We need to positively ID everybody, then you can collect whatever personal belongings you have. We will give you a few extra minutes because it’s your house. At that point, the locks get changed, the place gets boarded up, you can’t come back. Any of you come back, you will be arrested for criminal trespass,” Kendrew said.
“We are running it now to see if anyone is wanted,” Gamelin explained.
The deputies work to ID all six people inside. Those who don’t have a warrant are free to leave because the deputies are only there to do the eviction.
One person is taken into custody.
“We got one that’s got a warrant. We are taking him out of here,” Gamelin said.
The deputies say they confiscated several bags of crack and cocaine. They say there were needles and other evidence of drug use, as well as suspected stolen bikes.
Workers then boarded up the house.
The eviction is welcome news to neighbors who say the house has been a long-ignored problem.
“Champlain Housing seems to be indifferent,” neighbor Russel Paul said.
Champlain Housing Trust owns the building. They oversee hundreds of subsidized apartments in our region. CEO Michael Monte says he was aware of this problem property but evictions take time.
“We knew that this was going on for about six months. It’s taken this long to get to this day,” Monte said.
He says the agency tries to avoid evictions unless the problem gets to this point.
“It’s an economic impact, it’s a social impact and that’s why we work best we can to not have evictions,” Monte said.
He says issues like this are like playing Whack-a-mole.
“Is it a growing problem? I would say yeah,” Monte said.
He says he is working with lawmakers and local leaders to change how court-issued evictions work. He knows the impact they can have on neighbors and the community.
“We need to move faster when it comes to these situations. We need to be able to move as quickly as we can and not let it delay,” he said.
The sheriff calls this eviction a success. No one was injured.
“It went better than we thought it was going to go,” Gamelin said.
And they are on to the next eviction the same afternoon. Where those tenants go, we don’t know.
