As the St. Albans City community continues to confront a severe substance use crisis, officials there have begun questioning whether state-sponsored needle exchange programs should be operating within city boundaries.
Frustration over petty crime, substance use, and the growing number of littered syringes throughout the city has brought the community to a boil. It spilled over during a tense council meeting earlier this month, when officials from two service providers, Vermont CARES and the Howard Center, were invited to field questions from city councilors and the public.
Both organizations operate harm-reduction programs in St. Albans City.
“I can tell you from a personal perspective, I do not favor the free needle program,” Mayor Tim Smith said at the Sept. 9 council meeting to applause from the audience. “This is not helping us in any shape or form when our kids are at risk of picking up a needle. More needles isn’t solving our problem. I get there’s probably some language, some studies that say it does, but from a community perspective, it does us no good.”
Vermont CARES, an organization formed in 1985, has field offices in Barre, Rutland and St. Johnsbury, and spends about two to three hours a week in Franklin County. The group drives around a van to bring sterile syringes to several locations and provides safe disposal of used needles. It partners with local organizations and also distributes naloxone and offers HIV and Hepatitis C testing.
Syringe service programs have been shown to prevent the spread of disease like HIV or Hepatitis C, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and can offer support to those struggling with substance use disorder by connecting them with services.
“We do work specifically with people who are in active use, because we do believe that everybody, whether you are in active use or not in active use, deserves to have access to health services and the support that we often need that we don’t get in other places,” Theresa Vezina, Vermont CARE’s executive director, said during the Sept. 9 meeting.
The organization has operated in Franklin County since 2014, stopping in St. Albans but also making its way to Grand Isle County and more rural parts of Franklin County as well. It receives funding from the state, the federal government and from private foundations and is a state-sponsored program that operates under the guidance of the state Department of Health.
According to Vezina, the program gets back 80% of the needles it gives out in the 11 counties.
But loose syringes have become “a way of life” in St. Albans, according to City Manager Dominic Cloud. The public has become “outraged,” he said, and City Hall leaders are questioning whether they should continue allowing the practice within city boundaries. “The city’s experiencing a huge impact from it,” Cloud continued, noting that city parks and other public facilities are routinely littered with syringes. “That says that we’re leaning a little bit too much towards protecting the health of those who are suffering from addiction,” he said.
“I think that the empathy that we have had in the past might be waning a little bit,” City Councilor Trudy Cioffi said during the meeting. “Because some folks are starting to come into our cars, and onto our porches and into our houses.”
Smith, who did not respond to emails and calls requesting an interview, said during the council meeting that unless the organizations required one-for-one programs — where people accessing sterile syringes were required to exchange an old needle — “you won’t have my support.”
In a Thursday interview, Vezina said she was taken aback by the comments at the council meeting. “I’ll be honest with you… I’ve been with Vermont CARES 13 years now, and I’ve never in 13 years experienced as hostile as what we experienced at the city council meeting,” she said. “It was astounding… and really was sad to see how far away from humanity that this community has become.”
‘A much bigger issue’
The uproar directed at the city’s needle exchange programs comes as St. Albans City, like many Vermont towns, grapples with concerns about crime, substance use, and homelessness. More than two dozen residents packed into the Sept. 9 meeting to express their growing frustration with the state of their city.
Vezina said she felt the anger from the council and public “is about something much larger than just our syringe service program operating in St. Albans.”
“This is a much bigger issue, quite honestly,” she said. “This is a pretty extreme example of pushback.”
St. Albans City Police Chief Maurice Lamothe reported that instances of retail theft, disturbances, trespassing, and other petty crime have increased substantially from last year, although violent crime statistics have remained level.
“It’s basically the nuisance calls that are crushing us right now,” Lamothe said. Fifteen repeat offenders give the police department the most trouble, the chief said.
Diane Wheeler, a Franklin County deputy state’s attorney, also expressed frustration at the council meeting over the “repetitive petty criminals that are caught wreaking havoc in the community at this time.”
Much attention also focused on how to handle a growing homelessness crisis. The city has disbanded at least two encampments where residents without shelter have camped out, officials said.
Multiple community members and city officials suggested that unhoused residents were coming to St. Albans from elsewhere.
“Five years ago I could go into Martha’s Kitchen and I would know everyone at least by face, not by name. And I go in now and I know a few, but I don’t know many,” said Smith, later asking Lamothe and Wheeler “where are we attracting some of these individuals from?”
The city has proposed a handful of solutions to address residents’ concerns. Councilor Tim Hawkins said he was planning to propose an ordinance that would levy fines on absentee landlords, and would “require that they have knowledge of the people that go in and out of the property,” he said during the meeting.
The police department, meanwhile, is standing up a new street crimes unit. Many residents during the meeting also wanted to know whether a neighborhood watch group could help the police get a handle on the issue.
But many suggested the needle exchange programs, rather than presenting a solution, have been fueling the issues St. Albans faces.
‘You can’t just walk in here’
Cloud said the council is “reflecting on what their next step is, but at this point they’re still in the deliberation stage.”
Hawkins, the city councilor, suggested at the meeting that he could draft an ordinance banning needle exchanges from downtown St. Albans — a proposal that met with applause from the audience.
Hawkins told Vezina Vermont CARES needs to “come in here and talk” to the city about their program, “because I don’t remember seeing any license for you to be operating in the city of St. Albans.”
“This council can regulate that in the municipality anytime they want,” he said. “You can’t just walk in here and say, ‘Hey, look, I’m going to start giving away free needles in the community.’”
Hawkins and Cioffi, when reached by email, referred questions to Cloud, and said all media inquiries must go through the city manager or mayor.
Vermont CARES, the Howard Center and city officials agreed that a one-on-one meeting should be scheduled to discuss harm reduction practices, but nothing has been scheduled yet, according to Vezina and Cloud.
A spokesperson for the Howard Center was unable to answer questions this week.
Councilors Cioffi and Hawkins did not respond to questions about whether they would put forth an ordinance limiting the needle exchange programs in any way, but they and other officials during the meeting said they were hesitant to continue the program.
“I believe you that it’s making a difference health-wise,” Cioffi said to Vezina during the meeting. “But what I see is that the drug activity and the level of addiction that I see people suffering with is so huge that it makes me wonder, is this really helping, or is it just perpetuating a problem?”
Read the story on VTDigger here: St. Albans City questions needle exchange programs amid growing public safety concerns.