Break out your knitting needles (or get shopping) to keep children warm this winter. Drop off new children’s mittens and gloves at VHFA’s office at the corner of Saint Paul and King Streets in Burlington by Friday, December 16. 

After stuffing them with holiday goodies, VHFA will deliver the gifts to the King Street Center for children and teens who participate in their programs. 

VHFA’s mitten drive has been an annual holiday tradition for many years, thanks to the generosity of area mitten and glove donors like you.  Contact Steve Gronlund with questions at 864-5743 . 

Yesterday was pay up day for our friends at Housing Vermont who graciously served VHFA staff a delicious lunch in honor of our 2016 Way to Go Challenge Carbon Throwdown win. 

The friendly competition resulted in estimated savings of 6,475 miles of driving as 43 staff from the two agencies used alternative means of transportation during the 2-week competition in October.  

Way to go!

At the biennial Vermont Statewide Housing Conference on November 15, two statewide leaders were honored for their service and achievements. Representative Helen Head received the “Legislative Housing Hero” award for her years of commitment to affordable housing.  Head has served as South Burlington’s representative to the Vermont House of Representatives since 2003 and as Chair of the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs since 2007.  She also helped lead Project Home (now HomeShare Vermont) and the Joint Urban Ministries Project (JUMP).  Head also volunteers with and on behalf of Hospice of the Champlain Valley, Dismas House and Small Potatoes. 

BURLINGTON-The message to the hundreds of professionals gathered at the Hilton Burlington yesterday was loud and clear: A stable life starts with stable housing.  Scholars Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaefer described the poignant interviews they had with poor families before writing their renowned book “$2.00 A Day: Living on Next to Nothing in America.” 

“When we asked what they needed most, people consistently said they wanted a home of their own and a job paying $10-$12 hour.” Without the safety of four walls, poor families live in a highly volatile “toxic alchemy” of threats and obstacles, Edin explained.