Green Mountain DSA Statement on the Eviction of Food Not Cops from Marketplace Garage
On May 19, the Burlington City Council voted 8-4 to kick Food Not Cops out of the Marketplace Parking Garage, where it has operated a food distribution service for the past five years.
The Council’s action followed the May 9 publication of an open letter, by members of the Burlington business community, which claimed that Food Not Cops’ free daily lunch “has had a negative impact on the area.” The letter’s signatories “respectfully ask[ed] that this program be relocated to a more appropriate and secure setting.” Green Mountain DSA strongly condemns the Council’s action and the letter that appears to have motivated it. We are a proud signatory of the Alternative Open Letter from the Burlington community supporting Food Not Cops.
During Monday night’s Council meeting, GMDSA member and Burlington City Councilor Marek Broderick introduced an amendment to strike the provision to relocate the free lunch program from the Democrat’s resolution. Although Broderick’s amendment passed 8-4, Democratic Councilor Allie Schachter introduced a subsequent amendment to remove food distribution from the Marketplace Parking Garage, which passed on an 8-4 vote with Progressive Councilor Carter Neubieser joining the Democratic majority. With their vote, these councilors have demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice the most vulnerable members of our community to protect the interests of a few small business owners.
Despite Council Democrats’ efforts to force unhoused Burlingtonians out of sight, the initial passage of Councilor Broderick’s amendment, and the large community presence in support of Food Not Cops, demonstrates the importance of building and wielding working class power at the municipal level. Municipal governments have a critical role to play in alleviating the conditions that contribute to homelessness – housing scarcity, high rents, abusive landlords, poverty wages, and a dearth of mental health resources, to name a few. Rather than scapegoating those most impacted by these overlapping crises, Democrats on the City Council should be working to eliminate barriers to new housing construction, subsidize the building of affordable housing, and hold abusive landlords accountable.
Beyond these immediate measures, GMDSA advocates for the development of universal public housing at the state and national levels, which would bring down the cost of rent and transfer control of housing from private landlords to democratically-accountable public agencies. We also support policies such as just cause eviction and universal rent control, which protect tenants and help keep people housed. To cohere the working-class base necessary to win these reforms, we believe building the organized labor and tenant movements is critical.
Above all, we express our solidarity with Food Not Cops. We condemn any attempts to encumber their work, and we reject attempts to vilify free lunch and those who rely on it as an absurd distraction to the real threats facing us all.