Vermont Public Radio aired a 10-minute interview with homelessness advocate Morgan Brown.
Morgan blogs about policy and politics that affect homeless people, and has sometimes found himself among their ranks.
Vermont Public Radio aired a 10-minute interview with homelessness advocate Morgan Brown.
Morgan blogs about policy and politics that affect homeless people, and has sometimes found himself among their ranks.
Members of Vermont Interfaith Action (VIA) met last night to consider options to encourage the University of Vermont (UVM) to create more affordable housing for its staff and faculty.
The Burlington Free Press reports about 80 people attended the meeting at the College Street Congregational Church to hear a report about the area's affordability challenges and UVM's past promises to help create more housing.
Several UVM employees who've struggled to find affordable places to live within easy commuting distance of the university's campus spoke at the meeting.
UVM administrators did not attend, but sent a letter to be read at the gathering. Administrators say student housing is UVM's current focus.
The Burlington Free Press reported on Vermont's real estate scenario yesterday. The front page story featured VHFA Policy & Planning Manager Maura Collins.
"Vermont's reliance on community banks, which remained careful in their lending practices when bigger banks and mortgage companies were playing fast and loose with underwriting guidelines, helped Vermont avoid the foreclosure mess," the article states.
A planning retreat held for Chittenden County's ECHO Project will air on cable access around the county this month and next.
The project's an opportunity to engage citizens, organizations and municipalities in conversation about the future of our communities and the region.
An article in yesterday's Valley News takes a look at the tight rental market in the Lebanon/White River Junction area.
“The rental market is really tight,” Upper Valley Housing Coalition Executive Director Anne Duncan Cooley says in the article. “The prices are going up and the supply is tighter and tighter.”
The article confirms findings of "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont," which VHFA published last month.
According to a recent column that appeared in The Washington Post, federal budget cuts for fiscal year 2012 include $88 million of funding to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) that would have provided housing counseling.
"It is unreasonable, in the midst of a housing crisis that has financially devastated hundreds of thousands of households, that we are taking away access to free or low-cost counseling that helps these families," Michelle Singletary writes.
In 2010, the Champlain Housing Trust helped 187 Vermont households avoid foreclosure and provided counseling to 309 others that were preparing to buy a home, 90 of whom did.
We've just added nine more homes to our list of properties available for sale through VHFA's Housing Acquisition and Rehabilitation Program (HARP).
The homes are "Coming soon," which means they're currently under renovation and will be available for sale soon.
Read more about HARP ("VHFA offers homes for sale; listings online").
The Stowe Reporter published a story today about last week's "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont."
The article, "Poverty in Vermont: Housing costs put squeeze on poor," is the second in a three-part series devoted to challenges of the poor. Read the article online.
National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" aired a story yesterday in which they set the Case-Shiller home price index to music. Enjoy.
VHFA's Housing Acquisition and Rehabilitation Program (HARP) was the subject of a story in last week's St. Albans Messenger.
VHFA purchases foreclosed homes from other lending institutions through the program. We then make extensive improvements to them before offering them at greatly reduced prices thanks to Vermont Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds.
HARP's an economic stimulus success story — creating jobs for Vermont builders; more affordable homes for Vermont buyers.