Fifteen homeless Vermont veterans will receive permanent housing assistance as part of a $58.6 million U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rental assistance program announced last week.

The program will connect homeless veterans from local Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) with rental assistance vouchers provided by local public housing agencies.

Nationwide, nearly 8,000 veterans will benefit.

In Vermont, 15 vouchers will be made available to veterans from the VAMC in White River Junction through the Vermont State Housing Authority.

We've created a Twitter account for the Vermont Statewide Housing Conference: @vtshc.

To facilitate discussion about the conference as we approach the Nov. 18 event, add the hashtag #vshc to your own tweets and we'll re-tweet your comments to the conference's followers.

Follow the conference on Twitter now.

If you missed VHFA Executive Director Sarah Carpenter on Mike McNamara's "Housing and Communities" show on Channel 17 last night, you have a few more chances to catch it:

• Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 7:00 PM
• Monday, June 7, 2010 at 3:00 PM
• Monday, June 14, 2010 at 3:00 PM
• Monday, June 21, 2010 at 3:00 PM
• Monday, June 28, 2010 at 3:00 PM

We'll be posting a link to streaming video on the Web as soon as Channel 17 makes it available.

Last Friday, the U.S. House passed H.R. 4213, the “Tax Extenders Bill.”

The legislation provides $1 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF), which will enable communities to build, rehabilitate, and preserve housing for very low income households.

The legislation also includes $2.5 billion for the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund (ECF), which provides benefits, cash assistance, subsidized employment, and short-term assistance to low-income families.

The ECF was enacted under the Recovery Act and was set to expire Sept. 30. The bill extends it to Sept. 30, 2011.