April Burbank

Free Press Staff Writer

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has asked Vermont whether there is any 90,000-square-foot facility that could house up to 1,000 undocumented child immigrants, the governor's office said Friday.

EARLIER: Vt. to investigate housing undocumented kids

The state's not sure that such a facility exists, said Sue Allen, Gov. Peter Shumlin's deputy chief of staff, but has asked Burlington and emergency management organizations to look into the options.

"They're not looking for in-home placements," Allen said. "They're looking for large kind of institutional facilities that could hold large numbers of children."

Other states might consider military bases as potential options for temporary housing, she said. In Vermont, a college dormitory might be an example of the size of building that could work — though it would present its own challenges with availability.

The state is also talking with the Red Cross and Vermont Emergency Management for ideas, Allen said.

The governor's office asked Burlington "to simply put together an informal survey of potential housing options," Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a telephone interview. "That's all we're doing at this point, is just doing an inventory of what options might exist."

Weinberger said the informal survey, which is being conducted through the Community and Economic Development Office, began with a call from the governor's office last week.

Mayor Weinberger said he did not know if any Burlington location had been identified that met the criteria.

The mayor called the survey a reasonable step, though he could not yet comment on whether the city would agree to house the children.

"There's been no specific request to host any children," Weinberger said, "and any request would go through considerably more vetting before it was committed to."

An estimated 57,500 unaccompanied children, including many from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, have been caught crossing the southern border illegally this fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Vermont is among several states contacted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with an initial inquiry about ability to host the children.

Contact April Burbank at (802) 660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank