A new housing development in Bennington financed through VHFA’s Housing Tax Credit program has come under fire from several local residents. They had based their opposition to the development in part on the potential impact that children moving into the apartments on public school enrollment.
However, Bennington school officials estimated that new apartments planned for development through Shires Housing would be unlikely to cause hardship for local schools, the Bennington Banner reported recently.
VHFA’s analysis shows that similar rental units in the area contain an average of 0.78 children per unit—far below neighbors’ estimates.
Like most of Vermont, overall demographic shifts in the population caused the number of children in Bennington decline by 12-13%in the past decade.