Despite public disagreements, outgoing Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger and Burlington Housing Authority leaders have agreed to share the cost of security improvements at Decker Towers.

The city will pay roughly $38,000 to help deter the scores of people who have trespassed inside the building over much of the past year. During that time, Decker Towers' elderly and disabled residents have endured daily violations of their living spaces. People who don't live there have used laundry rooms and stairwells as warm places to sleep or to buy and use drugs.

Such problems have not been limited to Decker Towers, but the 11-story building became a magnet during the winter months when city homeless shelters were full.
The housing authority will use the city cash to hire a security guard to stand watch at the front door during the evening and early morning hours, something that low-income residents of the high-rise apartment building have been requesting for months — and had begun doing themselves.



For its part, the housing authority agreed to continue paying for roving security patrols that it commissioned earlier this year, according to a written agreement signed on Monday. The authority will also consider other ways to control access to the building, including hiring an outside security consultant.
The city and housing authority will essentially split the total cost of security guards at Decker, executive director Steven Murray said on Monday.

"I'm not thrilled about us having to buck up the money that we can't afford," he said. "But if the city is willing to meet us halfway, it's only fair that we meet them halfway."

The city's financial contribution comes from its designated housing trust fund, which local housing providers can tap for capital improvements. Technically, the funds will reimburse the housing authority for recent security-related upgrades at the property. But the written agreement notes that the $38,125 grant is equivalent to three months of overnight security guards.

A three-person committee that oversees the city trust fund approved the grant for Decker on Friday.

The housing authority can request more money from the trust fund in the future, the agreement notes. Any such decision would fall to the administration of incoming mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, who was scheduled to take office on Monday night.

Residents and housing authority leaders have said that — absent more police — round-the-clock security guards would be the quickest way to gain control of the building. Murray has maintained that his agency can't afford to foot the bill without depleting its capital reserves.

Earlier this year, Murray asked Weinberger to help fund two 24-hour guards inside the building, which would cost more than $600,000 per year. The mayor criticized Murray's proposal as "kind of absurd" and pushed for other, less expensive changes to how the housing authority manages the building.
Following a Seven Days cover story about the problems at Decker, the housing authority hired the Chittenden County Sheriff's Office to patrol the building several times each night during the week. Meanwhile, Murray and the housing authority's independent board of commissioners created a pared-down plan that requested $150,000 from the city to cover a year's worth of security needs.

The deal reached on Monday closely resembles the revised proposal, though it covers a shorter time frame. Weinberger's office provided a copy of the agreement to Seven Days on Monday but did not respond to a request for comment.

Housing authority commissioner Brian Lowe said on Monday that the short-term agreement allows the agency and the city to adjust as needed.

"We have to be aware of how the situation is evolving," he said.

Murray said he hopes a private security contractor can supply the evening/overnight guard by the end of the month. The new guard will supplement the periodic walking patrols that the company, Censor Security, already conducts. Once the new private guard is in place, the housing authority will stop paying the sheriff's office to patrol, Murray said.

Murray was filling in at the front counter of the housing authority's Main Street headquarters on Monday, taking rent checks from a steady stream of tenants, some of whom took the opportunity to alert Murray of drug use at and around their buildings.



Between customers, Murray summed up how he was feeling about the funding deal for Decker Towers: "This will help, at least."