Events

This year's Vermont Statewide Housing Conference on November 16, 2022 will feature keynote speaker Sara Bronin, a Mexican-American architect, attorney, professor, and policymaker whose interdisciplinary work focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places.

Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) joined Representative Peter Welch in South Burlington yesterday to announce a $4 million award from the federal government that will support the development of over 300 affordable apartments across Vermont over a three-year period.

**Update 6/24/2022: Review draft program guidelines. 

On June 30th, from 1:00-2:30 pm, Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) will host a web forum to review proposed guidelines and key components of the Missing Middle Homeownership Development Program. This session will offer an opportunity for comments and feedback on how the Missing Middle Program will be implemented. 

Planning has begun for the 2022 Statewide Housing Conference. After cancelling the conference in 2020, resuming this in-person, biennial conference feels like a welcome step out of the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic towards Vermont’s “new normal.” 

April is Fair Housing Month, an opportunity to celebrate the anniversary of the passage of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act, while also increasing our efforts to end housing discrimination, expand housing opportunity 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: 

In the newest installment of VHFA's housing video series, VHFA Executive Director Maura Collins interviews Vermont Housing & Conservation Board Policy Director Jennifer Hollar on how federal American Rescue Plan Act pandemic recovery funding is being used to create new affordable homes for Vermonters. 

The interview discusses how $144 million in new state and federal funding is being allocated, with 1,158 new homes expected to be created by the end of 2023. Already, 459 of those homes have been designated for Vermonters who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

There's still time to register for the statewide full-day Housing Summit on Wednesday, October 13 in Arlington. VHFA will join other experts in sharing case studies and best practices to promote affordable housing development. Municipal officials, housing developers, nonprofits, legislators and anyone having an interest in supporting the development of quality housing is encouraged to attended. Participants must register by no later than October 6th. More details and registration instructions are available in the event flyer. 

Housing leaders statewide have partnered to host a full-day Housing Summit on Wednesday, October 13 in Arlington. Municipal officials, housing developers, nonprofits, legislators and anyone having an interest in supporting the development of quality housing is encouraged to attended. 

VHFA will join representatives from the Department of Housing and Community Development, Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, the Bennington County Regional Commission and other experts to share case studies drawn from Vermont communities and best practices to promote affordable housing development.

VHFA is gathering input and data regarding two components of the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) slated to open later this year. HAF was created by the federal American Rescue Plan Act to provide relief for homeowners experiencing financial hardship after January 2020. The Fund will provide Vermont up to $50 million over the next 4 years to provide assistance for mortgage and other expenses troubling homeowners with pandemic-related hardship as well as for housing counseling and legal services.

In 2020 Vermont’s Energy Action Network formed a Weatherization at Scale action team, with the goal of weatherizing every home owned or rented by low-to-moderate income Vermonters by 2030. The coalition, which includes Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA), successfully urged Vermont lawmakers and the Governor to invest more than $20 million towards weatherization in the FY 2022 state budget. This includes a $9 million pilot tariffed to-the-meter financing home weatherization program to be administered by VHFA.