Brenda Howley was the third winner in VHFA’s “Five-Week Wellness Challenge.”

Brenda was selected at random from all staff members who participated in Week #3 of the challenge to receive a gift certificate from Healthy Living.

The challenge is a progressive fitness program that encourages staff members to make small improvements to their health each week. For this week — Week #4 — staff are encouraged to get up and get moving, drink more water, eat healthier snacks and ... change one unhealthy behavior.

VHFA Policy & Planning Manager Maura Collins will present results from VHFA's 2011 "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont" report at the annual meeting of the Regional Affordable Housing Corp. (RAHC), May 18.

The group will also be electing directors and officers, and offering hors d'ourves and a cash bar.

The meeting will be held at Mount Anthony Country Club at 180 Country Club Drive in Bennington, Wednesday, May 18, 5 to 7 p.m.

Gov. Peter Shumlin has called for a Governor’s Summit on Housing the Homeless to be held June 7 at the Statehouse in Montpelier.

A focus on people who're homeless has been a priority for Shumlin and his Agency of Human Services since he took office. The Governor's convened this opportunity for housing providers to hear and respond to specific proposals a collaborative group of stakeholders will present based on models of how to successfully house people who are homeless.

We hope housing communities from all parts of the state will be represented at this meeting so solutions the State adopts will work well for all properties and tenants.

According to a recent column that appeared in The Washington Post, federal budget cuts for fiscal year 2012 include $88 million of funding to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) that would have provided housing counseling.

"It is unreasonable, in the midst of a housing crisis that has financially devastated hundreds of thousands of households, that we are taking away access to free or low-cost counseling that helps these families," Michelle Singletary writes.

In 2010, the Champlain Housing Trust helped 187 Vermont households avoid foreclosure and provided counseling to 309 others that were preparing to buy a home, 90 of whom did.