ANGELO LYNN

That Middlebury’s houseless population has become more problematic is an outcome of doing too little for too long. The issue has been recognizable for several years but came to a head a year ago when downtown vandalism and disruption prompted two dozen downtown business owners to protest to the town, and state legislators, demanding stronger action.

One unruly person, who was responsible for much of the vandalism, was moved along and the crisis subsided — even as the encampment downtown remained.

At the time, municipalities were hesitant to restrict access to town-owned land because of the possibility of legal suits. Since then, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 ruled, 6-3, in an opinion in the Grants Pass (Oregon) v Johnson case that gave municipalities more flexibility and control in regulating houseless encampments.

Belatedly, in early September, the selectboard directed the town’s Policy Review Committee to research and write a local encampment policy, which it has now completed as a draft. That policy is being vetted by other town officials before being submitted to a full selectboard review and public discussion.

As winter bears down on the people impacted, as well as the downtown business community, the town remains without an alternative to the status quo the town has endured for too long. It’s frustrating because communities like Montpelier drafted a plan Middlebury might consider adopting back in 2021.

Not that anything is easy. The county’s Homelessness Task Force has been consulted and they’ve provided feedback on encampment rules. Many nonprofits who serve this population have also been consulted. Plans call for the Middlebury Public Health & Safety Committee, among others, to weigh in as well. And as a community we should be compassionate to those whose circumstances, sometimes beyond their control, have put housing beyond their reach. Mental health issues compound the problem and make the solution that much more difficult. No doubt, they are many scenarios to consider and reconsider.

But here’s the thing: Inaction, in the form of endless debate, isn’t an option.

Selectboard member Fred Dunnington gets down to the nut of the issue when he said at this week’s meeting: “The town has a legal authority to say, ‘There are some places you absolutely cannot be.’ We ought to assert that — not just by a policy… You need an ordinance. You assert control as stewards of town property over at least some areas, then have a policy to guide things.”

That’s a good step one. Step two, as Selectboard Chair Brian Carpenter said in today’s story on the issue, is figuring out “where is it we would guide them to.”

To determine that, it’s important to first understand there won’t be ideal locations. But we can make a temporary choice and proceed from there, seeking better alternatives in the months or years to come.

Talk to a majority of downtown businesses, and patrons who frequent those businesses as well as the town’s library and community theater, and one thing is clear: one place an encampment should not be is where it currently is — behind the library and under the Cross Street Bridge in the heart of downtown.

As we suggested a year ago, this area along the Otter Creek could be designated as a downtown riverside park and placed off-limits to encampments, as should other downtown parks and the town’s core sidewalks along Main Street and Merchant Row and the downtown river corridor. Let’s start there.

Recognizing the houseless community must also have easy walking access to a general store and proximity to food, drink and public transportation, there are two areas that immediately come to mind that fit that bill: on town land below the police station to the Otter Creek; and near the southern edge of Middlebury’s Battell Woods, opposite McDonald’s (and a bit south). Both are on town land and are near food and public transportation, and both are relatively removed from residential neighborhoods.

These two suggestions may not fit the criteria the selectboard establishes, but they hint at possible solutions that could be put in place before another winter rolls by and the downtown is besieged by troubles caused in part by our own inaction.

Angelo Lynn