VHFA Commissioner Gus Seelig (left) and Executive Director Sarah Carpenter (third from right) were among the housing dignitaries who attended a ground breaking ceremony at Union Square Apartments in Windsor last Friday.

Union Square Apartments, formerly known as Armory Square, is a $9 million construction project that will offer 58 affordable apartments when it's completed next November.

VHFA published its latest issue paper this morning. "Family Homelessness in Vermont" is the fourth in a series of issue papers we began two years ago.

"Family Homelessness in Vermont," written by VHFA Public Affairs Manager John Fairbanks, explores the number of homeless Vermonters, the state of Vermont's shelters, why people are homeless, as well as what Vermonters are doing about the problem and what more we can do.

Other issue papers in our series are:

Unprecedented increases in the cost of energy mean owners and managers of multifamily properties will face budget challenges this coming winter.

VHFA Director of Multifamily Programs Sam Falzone has just issued a memo outlining these challenges and offering a number of tips to owners and managers of VHFA-financed properties to help lessen the blow of growing heating costs.

"Clearly, energy savings are no longer just desirable but are now absolutely necessary," Sam writes. "If you have been reluctant to implement previous efficiency recommendations, now is the time to call us and discuss doing so."

Read the complete memo (57 KB; PDF).

I had the good luck to attend An Event Apart, a Web designers conference in Boston, earlier this week.

During the final session of the two-day event, I had the even better luck to join Jeffrey Zeldman, arguably the "godfather" of modern Web design, on stage for a quick, impromptu critique of Vermont Housing Data, the Web site I designed/developed as part of a team of staff members from VHFA and the University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies.