By Kolby LaMarche

Burlington is shutting down its BTV Cares mental health co-responder program on December 31, 2025, after a two-year state grant ran out. 

City officials say the program duplicated existing services and failed to fill all positions, leaving no path to continue without new funding.

The Vermont Department of Health awarded Burlington $650,000 in 2023 to launch BTV Cares in January 2024. The plan called for two full-time licensed clinicians, one psychiatric nurse or EMT, and administrative support embedded inside the Burlington Police Department. 

Clinicians would ride along or respond separately to mental health crises, overdoses, suicide threats, and welfare checks.

In practice, only one clinician position was ever filled. 

The nurse/EMT role stayed vacant after talks with the University of Vermont Medical Center collapsed over licensing and liability concerns. A November memo from the Fire Department and the Police Department  to the City Council stated the team still handled 312 calls from January to October 2025, with 78 % resolved on scene and only 12 % requiring transport to the hospital.

Despite those numbers, city leaders concluded BTV Cares overlapped too heavily with the Howard Center’s Street Outreach Team, which has operated in Burlington since 2011. 

Howard Center pairs master’s-level clinicians with peer recovery coaches and responds to non-violent mental health calls seven days a week from 8 a.m. to midnight. The team already shares a direct dispatch line with Burlington police and fire.

They recommended folding all mental health dispatch into Howard Center and the department’s four Community Service Liaisons (CSLs), who are uniformed but unarmed civilian employees.

Starting January 1, 2026, the city will: 

• Let the Howard Center Street Outreach assume primary responsibility for suicidal ideation, acute psychiatric episodes, and welfare checks without immediate safety risks.
• Have CSLs handle overdoses, trespass complaints with behavioral health components, and physical safety threats.
• And police officers will still respond when weapons, violence, or felony crimes are reported.

The City Council unanimously approved a new data-sharing and referral agreement with Howard Center on November 18. The contract requires monthly reports on call volume, response times, and outcomes.

Several councilors expressed unease, however. Central District Progressive Melo Grant warned of gaps: “I am concerned that there will be gaps that we might not be able to fill and certain names that we haven’t heard from before or for a while will pop up in the news again.”

Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak called the expiration “a structural problem, not a performance problem.” The mayor’s office estimates the two clinician salaries and benefits alone cost $218,000 per year. 

Without a renewed grant or budget line, the city cannot keep the positions.

Burlington’s mental health demand remains high. The city is home to roughly one-third of Vermont’s unsheltered population. Point-in-time counts in January 2025 recorded 418 people experiencing homelessness in Chittenden County, up from 339 the previous year. 

Opioid-related deaths in the county reached 112 in 2024, according to the Vermont Department of Health.

Short-term grants have repeatedly hampered similar programs statewide. A 2024 Vermont Public investigation found at least six Vermont communities lost co-responder teams when one- or two-year federal or state awards ended. Only programs with permanent budget lines—such as in Rutland and Barre—have survived long-term.

Howard Center officials say they can absorb the additional volume with current staffing of 15 outreach workers, projecting a modest caseload increase. No immediate hires are planned.

Advocates are skeptical. Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness director Brenda Torpy told the council, “One-year and two-year grants create chaos for people who already live in chaos. We need stable, multi-year commitments.”

The council directed the administration to pursue federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants and possible American Rescue Plan Act carryover funds before the 2027 budget cycle.

For now, Burlington joins a growing list of Vermont cities that tested co-responder models only to scale back when the pilot money disappeared.