Housing Matters blog

A calcutta and silent auction to benefit the residents whose apartments were flooded just before Christmas will be held on Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 6pm. 

Tickets are $30 for one person and $10 for each additional person in your group.   Silent auction items will also be available, followed by a live band.

The event will  be held at the St. John’s Club is located at the end of Lakeside Avenue in Burlington. Proceeds will be used to support the tenants who were the hardest hit when a coupling crack in a fire suppression and alarm system at Cedar’s Edge, a new apartment building on Susie Wilson Road in Essex, caused the building to flood on December 20. 

Champlain Housing Trust staff, with assistance from the Red Cross, found temporary hotels for the 58 residents. People living in 18 apartments were allowed to return on Christmas Eve, and residents of the 12 damaged apartments have been housed while repairs are made.

For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the Champlain Housing Trust at 862-6244 or visit their offices at 88 King Street in Burlington.

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In August 2011, the University of California at Davis welcomed the first residents of UC Davis West Village, a multi-use development that is expected to generate the same amount of energy that it consumes.

The West Village community includes commercial space and apartments for 800 students. When completed, the community will also include an energy research center.

Read more.

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Pathways to Housing Vermont will be hosting its first ever fundraising event this weekend.   The party will take place on Saturday, February 18th at Cafe Maglianero in Downtown Burlington.

Pathways Vermont first opened its doors in January 2010. Funded by grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Vermont State Department of Corrections (DOC), the Pathways Team works find permanent and independent housing for tenants, using a “Housing First” approach to addressing homelesssness among people with psychiatric disabilities.  

Purchase tickets or make a donation or check out the on-line auction. 

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Many applicants for assisted rental housing in Vermont will now need only complete a single application as a beginning point in the process of applying for housing under the many different programs available.

Developing the application began as a joint effort by the Vermont Housing Managers Association and VHFA in May of 2010 and was motivated by requests from housing managers, applicants, case managers and social service agencies who work with rental housing applicants throughout the state.

New rental housing receiving loans and housing credit funding from VHFA will be automatically required to use the common application. Existing projects across the state are also encouraged to use it.

Read or download the common rental application.

Please contact VHFA’s Sam Falzone, (802) 652-6435, with any questions or comments.

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According to WCAX’s story this week about a local family of four, the road out of homelessness is particularly long and challenging when juggling the needs of children.   

The family spent six months in a shelter specially designed for families, which required balancing the demands of living with ten other families.  The family’s oldest daughter faced the additional complexities of  attending elementary school while living in a shelter.

The stresses and costs of the road out of homelessness highlight the importance of helping families avoid the road into homelessness in the first place.  Identifying interventions that help residents weather precarious situations and stay in their homes will reduce the number of us who experience homelessness each year, suggests a growing body of research on the impact of homelessness prevention programs, such as the latest research brief  from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ evaluation division. 

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The settlement between the nation’s top five mortgage lenders, the states, and the federal government will bring $3.1 million to Vermonters in the form of loan modifications and other relief.   An additional $3.6 million will go to the state’s coffers for housing related purposes, according to Vermont Public Radio. 

Residents with VHFA mortgages are unaffected since we don’t use any of the lenders involved in this case to service our loans. 

Read more at Vermont Public Radio’s web site.   

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VHFA’s Executive Director Sarah Carpenter announced Cynthia Reid of Huntington has been promoted to Assistant Director of Development at Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA).

Development Director, Joe Erdelyi, commented “The promotion is in recognition of Cindy’s hard work, dedication and her contributions to the Department and the Agency as a whole.” Reid joined VHFA in 1996.

Read more.

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Chittenden County’s ECOS project is attempting to measure the region’s progress towards its housing goal of “increasing the opportunities for safe, decent, energy efficient, affordable, and fair housing for all types of households in diverse neighborhoods.” With such a broad goal, what data could indicate if we were on the right – or wrong – path?

VHFA and the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission are inviting you to help pick the indicators that will be analyzed to gauge success in the future.

Please come to VHFA’s offices (164 St. Paul Street, Burlington) on Thursday, February 16^th from 2-4pm to discuss what would be the most appropriate factors to monitor.

Right now, there are some suggested indicators for the housing goal, which is just one of over 40 indicators in the larger project of evaluating the region’s sustainability.

There are more indicators to comment on, for example there is a Social Community goal to “ensure physical access to the built environment (buildings and transportation) for all people” that clearly would apply to housing as well as other goals intended to increase diversity and public engagement.

You are welcome to comment on any of the indicators proposed online through ECOS’ website.

VHFA’s meeting on February 16^th will be open to the public as a way of having a collective conversation about what data is available and what is most appropriate as an indicator. If you have any questions, please contact Maura Collins, VHFA’s policy and planning manager.

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Gossen Bachman Architects, the designers of Union Square, containing 58 affordable and market rate rental apartments in Windsor, Vermont, have been awarded a John M. Clancy Award for Socially Responsible Housing from the Boston Society of Architects for its recent renovation. 

The award recognizes excellence in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of socially responsible housing. The award’s jury noted that Union Square’s entire neighborhood is revitalized by the historic buildings’ renovation. 

Project funding sources include VHFA, federal and state housing and historic tax credits, HUD, HOME, USDA Rural Development, the VT Community Development Program, energy efficiency funding, Neighborworks, federal Section 1602 housing credit exchange funds, the Federal Home Loan Bank and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.  The project was developed by Housing Vermont and the Rockingham Area Land Trust (now the Windham and Windsor Housing Trust) and is managed by Stewart Property Management.

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Following up the State of the Union address, the Obama administration released details of a plan to help borrowers and support the housing market’s recovery.  

Read the housing plan. 

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