VHFA has been hired by the Vermont Agency of Human Services (AHS) to write the state's 10-year plan to end homelessness.

VHFA expects to spend five to six months researching, writing, soliciting feedback and making final revisions to the report. We plan to release it during the next legislative season.

Vermont's initiative to publish a 10-year plan was inspired by the National Alliance to End Homelessness's 2001 report "A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years," which encouraged communities to develop and implement plans to end or greatly reduce homelessness in their communities.

Now through the Vermont Statewide Housing Conference, Nov. 18, we’re spotlighting speakers planning to participate in the day’s bevy of workshops. Next up: Sheila Crowley, President/CEO, National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Sheila joined the staff of the coalition in December 1998, after two decades in Richmond, Vir., in organizational leadership, direct service, policy advocacy, and scholarship. She's a social worker with a bachelor's (1976), master's (1978), and Ph.D. (1998) from the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University.

We've changed the focus of one of the workshops coming up at the Vermont Statewide Housing Conference:

"Challenging Changes for Housing" will still cover the Challenges for Change legislation, but will no longer focus on Washington County.

We'll discuss the legislation and what housing providers can expect in the future. The Deputy Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Human Services will provide an agency overview and then focus will shift to the Department of Corrections and its plans for transitional housing.

A community-based housing provider will respond to the agency's plans.

The Associated Press reports that, as of last month, approximately 680,000 of homeowners who entered the federal government's mortgage relief program, have been disqualified. That's 51% of all participants, up from 48% the previous month.

Those figures, released by the U.S. Treasury Department yesterday, might reflect the complex nature of fixing the nation's housing crisis.

Read the AP story online.