By purchasing $125,000 in Vermont Housing Tax Credits last Friday, Union Bank supplied the equity needed to help approximately 125 households buy their first homes in Vermont this coming year. These households will receive up to $5,000 to help cover their down payment and closing costs through a statewide program when they qualify for a Vermont Housing Finance Agency mortgage.
Lack of affordable housing is the community challenge that survey respondents are most concerned about, according to the recently released 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment. Among survey respondents, 58.3 percent rated lack of affordable housing as the top concern, followed by 52.5 percent for drug and alcohol abuse.
Building Homes Together was launched yesterday. It is a collaboration of organizations and communities seeking to remedy some of the most pressing challenges in Chittenden County’s housing market.
“The housing shortage in Chittenden County has been well noted with unhealthy vacancy rates and high rents,” added Charlie Baker, Executive Director of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. “Employers can’t find workers, and workers themselves spend more time in commutes and with a higher percentage of their paychecks on housing costs.”
A modest, two-bedroom apartment costs $1,099, according to the annual Out of Reach report from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. In order to afford this level of rent and utilities — without paying more than 30% of income on housing — a household must earn an hourly “housing wage” of $21.13—far more than Vermont’s minimum wage of $9.60 or the average wage among the state’s renters ($11.79).
A recent report from the Bipartisan Policy Center describes the need for a comprehensive national approach to integrating health care and housing for seniors.
After sitting vacant for six years, the Gevries mobile home park in Addison County has started redevelopment. VHFA provided housing tax credits that will cover an estimated 60 percent of the project’s costs and ensure that the new 14-home community will be affordable for low-income renters of all ages. By installing VERMOD high-performance duplex homes, developers Cathedral Square Corporation and Addison County Community Trust anticipate that the neighborhood will achieve net-zero annual energy costs, another critical component of its long-term affordability.
Executive Director Sarah Carpenter joined partners from Cathedral Square and other agencies to launch construction of Elm Place, a 30-unit building for seniors in Milton. Elm Place will be Vermont’s first multi-family building certified to Passive House standards. Better windows and doors, added insulation and improved air sealing are expected to enable the building to use roughly 65 percent less energy.
Thanks to a local survey commissioned by Vermont State Housing Authority, the Fair Market Rent standards used for HUD's Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers in Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties will be revised upward effective today. The levels established in December 2015 by HUD were 16 percent lower than the new levels.
The survey of rents in the Burlington metro area was funded by VHFA and other partner agencies. Read more.
Paul Dettman will retire this week as Burlington Housing Authority’s (BHA) Executive Director, a post he held for the past 20 years. With Dettman at the helm, the Burlington Housing Authority’s role has grown to managing over 600 affordable apartments and providing rental assistance to 1,700 low-income Chittenden County residents. In addition, Dettman partnered with VHFA to preserve the affordability of many area apartments when original federal contracts from the 1970s and 1980s expired and presented owners with opportunities to sell the buildings and change their use.
A modest, two-bedroom apartment costs $1,099, according to the annual 
