Burlington's planned clearing of a homeless camp near a parking lot in the South End neighborhood was postponed while the city considered several issues involved, but Chief Brandon del Pozo said Tuesday evening the removal would proceed "no sooner than the end of the week."

Del Pozo said Tuesday morning the eviction was on hold while the city was "actively working" to balance various concerns, including the safety of people at the encampment, the law and evolving city policy.

In a statement Tuesday evening, he said the city had concluded it had the legal authority and the need to disband the camp.

"In the case of Sears Lane, there have been allegations and reports of domestic violence, a dispute with a firearm, vandalism and arson of camper property, and drug dealing and use," he said. "Neighbors of the encampment have repeatedly voiced concerns about the conditions there. The police cannot quickly and safely respond to an encampment with no address, located in the woods."

Reached by phone Tuesday evening, del Pozo said the removal most likely would happen Friday, but could be delayed until next Monday or Tuesday depending on the schedules of Department of Public Works staff.

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In mid-September, police notified the half-dozen campers who had made a wooded Sears Lane lot their home that they would be evicted Tuesday.

In documents obtained by the Burlington Free Press, Deputy Chief Shawn Burke cited a pattern of incidents that in other camps, he said, led to violent encounters, including deaths.

Friday evening, American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont attorney Jay Diaz sent a letter to the city expressing legal concerns about the city's plan to clear the encampment. The letter demanded Burlington officials cease plans to shut down the Sears Lane camp, along with plans to shut down other homeless encampments throughout the city.

"It seems clear the city is doubling down on its policy of evicting campers even when they have no place else to go," Diaz said Tuesday evening in response to the decision to proceed with the removal.

Diaz said the chief's statement contained "a whole bunch of new allegations that have never been alleged before."

"Whether those are true are not is immaterial to the fact that people everywhere need a roof over their heads, so the question remains — where are these people supposed to go?"

He said the ACLU had given the city an opportunity to change, but now the organization is considering further action.

During an unrelated news conference Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Miro Weinberger said he believed in the city's policy, and the city had a responsibility to act when there were safety concerns. He brought up two homicides, one in 2016 and one in 2015, that took place in homeless encampments.

The city will reach out to the campers to make them aware of the pending action, del Pozo said.

About four remaining campers woke up Tuesday expecting city officials to enforce the relocation that morning.

Ashley Baker, who remained in the camp, said she and her partner, Nick Walls, were hoping to have housing in Barre by Nov. 1. She said she called the police department's community affairs worker, Lacey-Ann Smith, the previous night to ask if the city could hold off until the beginning of the month.

Dylan Berns-Snyder, 19, said he has been living at the camp for about five months. Before the camp, he was sleeping in Battery Park. He feels safer at Sears Lane, he said.

He is hoping to be in Spectrum Youth and Family Services's shelter by Nov. 1, but right now, he said, all the beds are full.

He'd like to see the city show "more understanding of homeless people and what we have to do to live, how we don't have a place to go every night," he said.

"I'd just appreciate it, I guess, if we could stay here until Nov. 1. It'd be nice. We'd all have somewhere to go by then."

In his statement, del Pozo said shelter beds "come open with regularity," and he mentioned that in the coming weeks, the city's shelter capacity will expand with the seasonal opening of its low-barrier shelter.

In a phone conversation, he said he did not believe the police should tie the removal of the camp to the Nov. 1 opening of the shelter. He also said there are several other homeless encampments the city is not seeking to remove.

Early Tuesday morning, Stephen Marshall, a homeless advocate who had formerly lived in the Sears Lane camp, began cleaning out a tent he said was abandoned. Several people had once used it, Marshall said. He was planning to salvage useful items that could help other people.

"Finding a good location to camp is very difficult," he said. "We're talking about people who live on the street. If it's not in a camp, it's on the street."

The city's winter warming shelter will open Nov. 1. Burlington's shelter and housing resources are stretched thin, with most shelters reporting continual waiting lists and full beds. Weinberger has advocated for keeping the shelter open year-round, and pushed for allocating city money to the low-barrier shelter.

"We are actively seeking financial partners to attempt to ensure that once the shelter opens on Nov. 1 it stays open and does not close seasonally next year," Weinberger said.

Smith, who serves as the main point of contact between homeless camps and the police department, said last week she expects most homeless people who reside in shut-down camps to end up finding somewhere else to camp.

Del Pozo said the campers who were prepared to leave Tuesday were encouraged to do so voluntarily.

"They are trespassing, but we are not seeking to make the process unnecessarily confrontational," he said. "Their cooperation would be appreciated, especially if it's proactive."

Contact Jess Aloe at 802-660-1874 or jaloe@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @jess_aloe.