On Friday, September 2nd, US Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced several ways the agency will be speeding federal disaster assistance to Vermont and providing support for displaced owners and renters.

The notice announces that HUD is:

This summer, Vermont Housing Finance Agency sent a targeted email to participating lenders and a network of Realtors across the state announcing a summer contest: for each one who clicked the email to “like” VHFA on Facebook, or signed up to follow our Housing Matters blog, they were entered into a drawing to win an Elite Keurig brewer and five boxes of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters coffee.

Susan LaFerriere at Union Bank’s office in St.Johnsbury was our winner!

Over the weekend, four more counties were added to the list of those eligible for FEMA individual assistance to help recover from damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene. Residents of Addison, Bennington, Chittenden, Orange, Rutland, Washington, Windham, and Windsor counties can now register for FEMA assistance online or by phone at 1-800-621-3362.    At the time of this posting, FEMA had approved 334 applications from Vermont households. For more information on storm-related information for VHFA home owners, multifamily properties, and others, see VHFA's post on September 2.

Windham County was added to the list of Vermont counties designated as eligible for individual assistance from FEMA.   This means that individual residents of Chittenden, Rutland, Washington, Windham and Windsor counties may apply directly to FEMA for assistance recovering from damage from Tropical Storm Irene.  

Residents in these counties who were impacted by Irene can now register for FEMA assistance online or by phone 1-800-621-3362. More counties may be added to the list as the damage assessment progresses.