Fair housing

Fair Housing Month is an opportunity to explore ways to promote housing opportunity throughout the year. Communities play important role to play in fair housing because many local practices or policies that seem outwardly reasonable can promote housing discrimination or segregation. The Vermont Housing Data website’s Housing-Ready Toolbox includes resources to help municipalities comply with fair housing laws and create more equitable, inclusive communities.

Fair Housing Month continues, with many events still to come through the Fair Housing Project of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO). VHFA has compiled a reading list of resources to learn more about how housing discrimination continues to impact Vermonters and our nation as a whole. 

In case you missed it

April is Fair Housing Month, an opportunity to celebrate the anniversary of the passage of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act, while increasing our efforts to end housing discrimination and raise awareness of housing rights.

The Fair Housing Project of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) and statewide partners are hosting a number of events throughout the month. These include: 

February is Black History Month. Our nation has a long history of racist housing practices which prevented many Black Americans and other minorities from becoming homeowners and effectively restricted them to living in certain neighborhoods. The impact of these practices is felt to this day, with many cities still largely segregated along the lines originally drawn by redlining.

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded worldwide, VHFA focused on the shifting needs of Vermonters and stayed the course with long-standing tools and programs. In March, the agency swiftly found ways to support non-profit partners as well as to pivot to fully remote work. By December, it had designed and wrapped up a 6-month Vermont COVID Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program that successfully helped 638 homeowners to remain stably housed after COVID hardships caused them to miss mortgage payments.  

Over the past 30 years, over 6,300 refugees have settled in Vermont. As newly arrived immigrants, the process of resettling can come with some challenges. According to a recent report by VHFA, immigrants and refugees face many unique barriers to housing in Vermont.  

Research Design 

To identify housing barriers faced by newly arrived immigrants in Vermont, we (1) conducted a literature review of previous research of newcomers in environments that share similar characteristics as Vermont and (2) interviewed service providers and experts in Vermont familiar with the housing experiences of immigrants. 

When Kimberly Edgar was unable to work due to COVID-19, the new Mortgage Assistance Program offered her a path for keeping her home in Brattleboro. Funded by the federal CARES Act, the program provides qualified Vermont homeowners with grants for up to six months of overdue mortgage and property tax payments.

The Local Solutions and Community Action Team of the Vermont Governor’s Economic Mitigation and Recovery Task Force created a tool for municipalities and local leaders looking to expand the vibrancy of their communities. The ideas and recommendations in the tool come from Vermonters and in many cases have already been implemented with success in communities across the state.

This commentary by VHFA Executive Director Maura Collins appeared recently in VTDigger

On July 16, the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) joined the Racial Justice Alliance, the Mayor of Burlington, and over 30 corporations and organizations from the region in declaring racism as a public health emergency.

Research conducted by VHFA for the 2020-2025 Vermont Housing Needs Assessment reveals that Vermont’s non-White households fare worse than White households according to numerous economic and housing-related metrics. Much of the data from the report is available on VHFA’s regularly updated Vermont housing data site.