The Burlington Tenants Union recognizes that COVID 19 is quickly becoming a crisis of international scale. We are deeply concerned that tenants are going to be disproportionately impacted by this pandemic. Many people will be asked to self-quarantine until the crisis is over. Quarantine requires safe housing and the economic resources to stay put.

In this light, we demand the state of Vermont take the following actions to support tenants throughout the state:

- House all homeless/houseless people. Quarantine requires housing.

- Eviction freeze. Evicting people during this crisis will only fuel the crisis

- Rent-free living until the crisis is over. Many tenants will not be seeing a paycheck as businesses close. We demand that workers not suffer during this crisis due to rent.

- Free utilities during the crisis.

- An immediate remediation to all properties with known code enforcement violations.

- Cleaning supplies, toilet paper, face masks and hand sanitizer for all tenants who need it during the crisis.