MONTPELIER, Vt. — A Montpelier resident urged the City Council on Thursday to stop clearing homeless encampments and to order the city manager to produce a shelter plan, as a speaker involved in planning the city's emergency winter shelter said its main site can hold only 12 people.

Steve Whitaker told the council during general public comment that the city plan adopted in July 2025 directed the city manager's office to find approved places to camp, a day shelter and restrooms open day and night. "That was 16 months ago," he said.

Whitaker said notices went up at seven camps in October, citing press reports, and that crews cleared them Oct. 22 "with nowhere for these people to go." He argued the city's encampment policy is an administrative document, not an ordinance, and that the city manager lacks authority to enforce it. "No ordinance, no authority," he said.

He asked the council to stop what he called "illegal displacements" and to "direct the manager by motion to deliver the plan required in the city plan with sites, hygiene costs, and dates at the next regular meeting." The council did not take up those requests Thursday.

Earlier in the meeting, when Whitaker described the displacements as illegal and reckless, the mayor responded, "I would say it is neither illegal nor reckless. That's my opinion."

Whitaker also said churches had walked away from a draft agreement to host managed camping and described the winter fallback in the City Hall basement as one room with one bathroom and 12 to 15 cots. "A plan its host cannot sign is not a plan," he said.

Winter shelter capacity

A speaker involved in the cold-weather shelter effort told the council that the grant funding the emergency winter shelter obligates it to provide shelter starting Dec. 1 on any night below 10 degrees. "We only have capacity for 12 people in the city hall basement at this time," she said, adding that it operates under a fire safety variance.

She said organizers would like to be able to shelter 30 people on the coldest nights but have not found a second site that passes fire safety requirements. "Honestly, I don't think that will be enough," she said.

A city staff member said materials for a second exit had been ordered and he believed the work would be ready by Dec. 1, and that 15 people was the capacity approved for the space. Another city staff member said the city is still looking for an additional shelter site and that a proposed trailer site depends on a commitment from a provider that has not yet been made.

Homelessness committee continues

City staff had suggested pausing the city's homelessness committee until it could be aligned with an updated strategic plan. After the committee's chair asked the council not to pause it, the council signaled the committee should continue, and voted to appoint Councilor Costello as a second council liaison to it.