Some photos from last week's VHFA holiday party and "Yankee swap."
Misc
Blog post #200
Friday afternoon, we posted our 200th entry to Housing Matters.
Here are some statistics about the blog's first several months online:
- The blog's been online 282 days
- It's received 3,308 page views, or, approximately 14 page views a day
- Still, the blog accounts for just 2.37% of vhfa.org's traffic as a whole
- The blog's busiest day was Nov. 19 (the day following our conference) with 55 page views
The blog's Top 10 Stories:
Holiday greetings
VHFA's holiday card comes courtesy of VHFA Loss Management Specialist Polly Thibault.
Polly has painted original artwork for VHFA's holiday card for the last several years.
This year, VHFA has "gone green," choosing to send nearly 1,000 partners our holiday wishes electronically.
All of us at Vermont Housing Finance Agency extend our best wishes for your holiday season and for the year ahead.
Trick 'r treat
Children of VHFA staff members were invited to the office today for a little Halloween fun.
Here are just a few of the faces that were seen wandering the halls looking for candy:
Participate in Web site focus group
The Center for Rural Studies (CRS) at the University of Vermont is conducting a series of focus groups to improve the Vermont Housing Data Web site.
These 30-minute sessions will help determine how the site is being used, how it impacts/benefits users, and how it could be improved. Each session will include group discussion as well as hands-on navigation of the site.
Participants receive a $40 gift card, and will be entered in a raffle to win a 4GB iPod nano.
Aloha, John
VHFA bid Multifamily Management Officer John Burczy farewell as part of a general staff meeting this morning. John, who has been with the Agency just months shy of 20 years, will conclude his tenure this Friday.
With a respectful nod to John's trademark fashion accessory, many staff members wore Hawaiian shirts to the meeting.
In lieu (or luau) of a greeting card, staff signed a poster featuring classic guitars for the musical aficionado.
In an email to staff, Director of Multifamily Programs Sam Falzone noted, "John has carved out a permanent place in collective consciousness.
Housing data updated
We've just completed our latest update to the "Vermont housing data profiles" section of Vermont Housing Data. We've added:
- Information on 2008 home sales processed during the first half of the year
- Updated population, housing unit, and building permit estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau
- Updated median family adjusted gross income and property tax rate statistics from the Vermont Department of Taxes
- Updated labor force and unemployment rate information from the Vermont Department of Labor
VHFA staffer to teach housing policy course
VHFA Policy and Planning Manager Maura Collins will teach a Housing Policy course this fall at the University of Vermont.
The graduate-level class will teach future public administrators (local planners, municipal officials, non-profit leaders, social workers, and others) about the history of housing policy in the U.S., current trends and models, fundamentals of financing and development, the "green" housing movement, as well as in-depth analysis of the current mortgage meltdown and resulting foreclosures.
The 14-week class will be an overview of most aspects of housing policy, including affordable housing.
It starts Sept. 4 and will be offered on the Burlington campus Thursdays from 4-7 p.m.
VHFA staff attend Lake Monsters game
VHFA staff members and family enjoyed a Lake Monsters game at Burlington's Centennial Field last night.
The Lake Monsters scored a season-high six runs in the bottom of the third inning for a 7-3 lead and went on to beat the Aberdeen Ironbirds 9-5.
The event was the Agency's annual summer outing.
Get more details on the game at the Lake Monsters site.
Pictured: Hannah Cawley shares some face time with Lake Monsters mascot Champ.
DoARH updated
We just performed our latest update to the Directory of Affordable Rental Housing (DoARH).
The DoARH is a searchable online database of all subsidized rental housing in Vermont. It contains data on 12,246 units, as well as manager-submitted vacancy information.
Our latest update revises manager, owner and project information in the database.