Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Charlie Baker joined area business leaders this week to discuss the region's growing jobs-housing imbalance. Although the number of people working in Chittenden County has grown to approximately 99,800, there are 11,300 fewer employees living here than in 2002.
Check out Baker's presentation for more information.
Yesterday Champlain Housing Trust's (CHT) Executive Director, Brenda Torpy, accepted the Renewal Award at a reception in Des Moines, Iowa. CHT's shared equity, permanently affordable homeownership program and five other innovative programs were selected during a nationwide search for creative, grassroots solutions to the country’s most pressing social and economic challenges.
Recognizing the clear benefits of shared equity homeownership for low- and moderate-income Vermonters, VHFA has long supported the state's network of shared equity programs, including CHT's.
Read more about this prestigious award from Atlantic Media sponsored by Allstate.
The State of Vermont’s Department of Housing and Community Development is conducting a public hearing in preparation for developing its 2016 HUD Consolidated Plan Action Plan. The purpose of the hearing is to obtain citizens' views about housing, homelessness, public facilities and services, and non-housing community development needs in the state, development of proposed grant activities, and to review past performance of programs included in the plan.
The recent federal budget agreement included the survival of a program that has become a vital funding source for affordable rental housing in Vermont--the HOME Investment Partnership Program. When proposals arose earlier last year to deeply cut the program, the National Association of Housing Finance Agencies (NCSHA) HOME Coalition tirelessly and effectively gathered evidence of the program’s impact, documented its widespread support and educated federal policy makers.
A bus from The Edge Kids & Fitness after school program brought 25 young helpers to VHFA yesterday for the Agency’s annual mitten stuffing. Aliya (pictured) and her fellow elves got right to work in VHFA’s board room, helping to stuff 175 sets of mittens, hats and gloves with candy. VHFA will deliver the bounty this afternoon to the Sara Holbrook Center and King Street Youth Center for distribution to local kids and teens in need.
VHFA sends out a big thanks to all of the knitters and shoppers who donated such high quality outerwear for this wonderful holiday event!
Two measures that help address the affordable housing needs of low-income Vermonters are likely to be passed in federal tax and omnibus spending bills on Capitol Hill this month.
The tax bill makes permanent the 9 percent minimum Low-Income Housing Tax Credit rate. A fixed minimum rate will bring much-needed predictability to the process of developing affordable rental housing.
Earlier this week, HUD published the final 2016 Fair Market Rent standards that will take effect as of tomorrow, December 11, 2015. FMRs are intended to represent the dollar amount below which 40 percent of the standard-quality rental housing units in an area are rented. They are used in HUD rental assistance programs, including the Section 8 and HOME programs.
In half of Vermont’s counties, the new FMRs are slightly higher than last year. However, in the more densely populated Burlington-South Burlington metropolitan area, FMRs decreased by about 8 percent due to a change in the methodology used there.
Housing preserved by federal and state tax credits -- awarded by VHFA – was recently highlighted as a national example of effective use of public dollars. The $12 million in equity raised by the credits, along with other efforts led by VHFA to keep apartments in the Bobbin Mill and Wharf Lane buildings near Burlington’s waterfront affordable, are the subject of a recent HUD newsletter.
The number of people who stayed in Vermont's emergency shelters last year and the average length of their stays were at their highest point in a decade. According to a recent report from Vermont's Department for Children and Families (DCF), publicly-supported emergency shelters in the state served 4,303 people in July 2014 through June 2015, up from 3,934 in the prior year.
On average, people stayed in Vermont's shelters 36.8 days. This is higher than in any prior year since 2002--the earliest year for which comparable data is available.
The American Institute of Architects, in conjunction with HUD, is now accepting entries for the 2016 Housing and Community Design Awards Program. Owners of structures and architects licensed in the United States are invited to submit project designs of any size, budget, or style. Only projects completed after January, 1, 2011 will be considered for the awards. All entries must be submitted electronically before November 20, 2015 at 5:00 pm EST.