Housing Matters blog

Last Thursday, more than 100 people gathered at The Cascades at Winooski Falls to celebrate Mobius Appreciation Night, a gathering of individuals from Chittenden County involved with mentoring.

The event, sponsored by The Cascades, was an example of business and non-profit communities coming together to help children succeed through mentoring.

The Cascades is part of a larger movement to restore a historically prominent downtown into a vibrant, modern community. Award-winning smart growth developers HallKeen Inc. and the Braverman Co. are working with the City of Winooski to restore the city center.

The Cascades is a housing development made possible, in part, by construction financing and Tax Credits from VHFA.

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Statistical research confirms unaffordable housing has broad impacts for local economies.

In the recent report “Unaffordable Housing and Employment Growth,” researchers at the New England Public Policy Center explain incremental increases in housing unaffordability reduce employment growth in U.S. metropolitan areas and counties and for all cities in California.

The results “turn out to be remarkably consistent,” the report concludes.

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Recent New York City-based research demonstrates residents of tax credit-financed apartments pay $500 less than monthly market rents, more than doubling the discretionary income available to each household for other necessities. The June 2010 report shows these income savings boost local purchasing power, “contributing to retail vitality of the neighborhood.”

The study, “Affordable Housing for Families and Neighborhoods: The Value of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in New York City,” was conducted by researchers from New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Enterprise Community Partners.

Neighborhoods surrounding apartments financed with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) also benefited through improved property values. In New York City, sites selected for tax credit development have tended to be blighted neighborhoods where property values were nearly 15 percent lower than surrounding areas.

Among all tax credit projects completed in New York City between 1987 and 2003, this gap fell by 6 percentage points almost immediately after completion of the projects. Within five years, “the development projects appear to have unleashed a chain reaction of improvement … the price gap had closed by nearly 10 percentage points, closing two-thirds of the gap between the property prices before development and the surrounding neighborhood.”

The study also looked to see if neighborhood impacts of newly-constructed tax credit-financed apartments differed from rehabilitation projects. The report explains “with average-sized projects, developers achieve the same neighborhood effect whether they renovate buildings or construct new ones. But as development projects get larger, the benefits from rehabilitating already-existing buildings outpace those of constructing new ones, most likely because renovations replace large and blighted properties, whereas new buildings are usually placed on previously vacant lots.”

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A story in this morning’s Burlington Free Press (“Vermont seeks to leverage success in weatherization numbers”) says, “Vermont leads the nation in meeting goals for weatherizing low-income homes using stimulus funds.”

The story goes on to to talk about stimulus funds that are helping make homes owned by low-income Vermonters more energy efficient.

VHFA is involved with a similar initiative aimed at improving energy efficiency of the state’s multifamily affordable housing developments.

The Vermont Fuel Efficiency Partnership (VFEP), in cooperation with VHFA and Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB), are trying to determine how to best allocate energy retrofit money made available by state, federal, and private funds.

We’re surveying all owners/managers of affordable multifamily properties to try to determine where those funds would be best put to use.

Take our survey!

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The TD Charitable Foundation is accepting applications for its 2010 Housing for Everyone grant competition.

The foundation, the charitable arm of TD Bank, will give $1.7 million to 34 local non-profit organizations that make a meaningful difference in meeting the affordable housing needs of their communities.

The theme of this year’s competition is Capital Improvements for Affordable Housing.

Here are the criteria:

• Applicant organization must be tax-exempt under IRS Code 501(c)(3) or must be a state/local government entity;
• Housing units or properties to be improved must be located in a TD Bank N.A. metro market area;
• Applicant organization must have a history of developing, maintaining and/or providing affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families or individuals (income may not exceed 80% of the area median income);
• Applicant organization must be able to show the impact they have made to affordable housing efforts in their community;
• Applicant organization must show fiscal responsibility and ongoing viability;
• All housing units or properties to be improved must be for and occupied by low- and moderate-income families or individuals;
• Applicant organization must be current on all outstanding debt obligations, utility payments and taxes, there can be no unsatisfied judgments/liens on the property;
• Applicant organization must be able to quantify the impact of their proposed capital improvements;
• Applicant organization that is applying for capital improvements of rental units must show an ownership interest in the subject property; and
• Applicant organization must not have any pending legal actions against it.

Applications will only be accepted through the TD Charitable Foundation’s online application system. Paper applications will not be accepted.

Applications should be submitted by 4 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 3. Notification of awards will be made by early November.

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Smart Growth Vermont announced Gus Seelig, Executive Director of the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB) and a Commissioner of VHFA, will receive this year’s Arthur Gibb Award for Individual Leadership.

The award honors the work of Arthur Gibb, often referred to as the “Father of Act 250.” Each winner must demonstrate a series of characteristics and achievements in addition to leadership: vision, commitment to public service, creativity, the ability to balance competing interests, integrity and humility.

“It takes somebody with vision to go from an idea to the comprehensive program which VHCB is today,” said Darby Bradley of the Vermont Land Trust.

“Gus also had the vision and creativity to take advantage of opportunities that came along which would leverage the State’s dollars for housing or conservation, or would take on some related program that would further VHCB’s overall objective.”

“Gus believes strongly that rising waters gather all boats so if his partners get recognition so will everyone else,” said Chris Hart of the Brattleboro Housing Authority.

“This recognition is then ‘shared’ with all of us engaged in the goals and work of VHCB and groups such as Smart Growth Vermont.”

Gus will be honored at the Arthur Gibb Award Ceremony Wednesday, Sept. 15 at the T.W. Wood Art Gallery in Montpelier. Tickets are $35. Register online.

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The U.S. Census is holding a free data workshop in Burlington, Thursday, July 15.

This hands-on event will show you how to access Census data using the online tool American Factfinder. Instructors will teach attendees how to create a custom profile for specific service areas.

The workshop’s taking place in the Computer Lab – Room 113T, Waterman Building, University of Vermont, 85 S. Prospect St., Burlington, from 10 a.m. to noon.

The event’s free, but space is limited so registration is required. Call Lynn Guthrie at 617.223.3610.

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U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced nearly $190 million in new grants to assist hundreds of local homeless assistance programs across the country.

The Vermont Balance of State Continuum of Care (CoC) was awarded $120,780 of those funds. (See “HUD awards Vermont CoC funding.”)

This is the first time in several years that Vermont’s CoC received an increase in these funds.

Read more about the grants in HUD’s press release.

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The Vermont State Housing Authority announced the Vermont Balance of State Continuum of Care (CoC) was awarded $120,780 in homeless assistance as part of an annual competition from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The award provides housing subsidies to eligible participants of a new Shelter Plus Care: Sponsor-Based Program.

Learn more about the CoC.

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The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus published an article today following last month’s release of VHFA’s annual “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont” report.

“Despite a decline in prices for homes in Vermont for the first time since 1992, the cost of housing continues to be a struggle for Vermonters, particularly first-time home buyers,” writes Eli Sherman.

“Vermonters struggling to find housing don’t just face challenges affording where they live, but also finding apartments or houses close enough to their jobs.”

VHFA Policy and Planning Manager Maura Collins, Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition’s Erhard Mahnke, and NeighborWorks of Western Vermont’s Ludy Biddle are quoted in the piece.

Read the article online.

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