Burlington will have no low-barrier homeless shelters until after Christmas, and even then, there will be nowhere near enough beds to house the many people currently believed to be sleeping rough in Vermont’s largest city. “It's tremendously concerning to have the number of folks we have outside when the season changes,” Sarah Russell, Burlington’s special assistant to end homelessness, said Tuesday. Burlington has needed more low-barrier shelters — which admit people regardless of sobriety — for years, and the situation has been exacerbated by recent evictions from Vermont’s oft-criticized homeless motel program. Officials estimate 350 people are living outside in and around the Queen City. [content-3] Last year, they would have been eligible for housing year-round under an expanded version of Vermont’s long-running cold-weather motel program. But a law passed earlier this year enacted stricter rules. Now, only people who meet certain eligibility criteria — those who are pregnant, over the age of 65, have children or a documented disability, for instance — qualify for a set number of nights during the warmer months. That means cities and towns are being forced to take on a greater role in providing emergency housing. In Burlington, city workers installed portable toilets and dumpsters near some camping hotspots this summer to accommodate people sleeping outdoors. Russell said that won’t continue through the winter, however. The city has also been working with local nonprofits on a pair of projects that aim to bring about 60 new shelter beds online — efforts that have run into some recent obstacles. Construction delays have pushed back the anticipated reopening of the low-barrier shelter at the former Champlain Inn on Shelburne Road from December 1 to January 1, according to Russell. Once opened, the shelter will house 30 people who will be assigned semi-permanent rooms that they can return to each night. [content-2] The second project, involving the former Social Security Administration office at 58 Pearl Street, has been snared in bureaucratic red tape. The building became available this summer under a law that gives away unused or surplus federal buildings for free to organizations that serve homeless people. The city hoped that the feds would transfer ownership to COTS, which has said it is willing to use the facility as a low-barrier shelter with 30 beds, including some likely reserved for walk-ins. But, as Seven Days previously reported, other applicants are vying for the building —…