This is the second of several quick bios we'll blog of speakers scheduled to appear at the Vermont Statewide Housing Conference, Nov. 18 in South Burlington.

Read about other speakers scheduled to present at the event and register to attend at the conference Web site.

Linda Ryan is an important figure in the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness. She has spearheaded the group's legislative advocacy for the past several years.

VHFA will hold a training session on Sept. 15 for homeless organization workers who'd like to learn how to use the Vermont Directory of Affordable Rental Housing (DoARH).

The directory is a searchable database of all subsidized housing units in Vermont. It contains data, as well as contact and vacancy information, on more than 12,000 units across the state.

Best of all, this powerful tool can be accessed free-of-charge at www.housingdata.org/doarh.

If the new National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, part of the housing relief initiative recently signed into law by President Bush, sounds familiar, it might be because the model for it was developed in Burlington more than 20 years ago.

The Burlington Community Land Trust, now Champlain Housing Trust, was created under Bernie Sanders — then Mayor of Burlington, now U.S. Senator — as a way to create perpetually affordable housing.

This is the first of several quick bios we'll blog of speakers scheduled to appear at the Vermont Statewide Housing Conference, Nov. 18 in South Burlington.

Read about other speakers scheduled to present at the event and register to attend at the conference Web site.

No one works in Vermont's housing community too long without coming across Erhard Mahnke. Erhard's worked in housing, community development and municipal government in the greater Burlington area for more than two decades.