Bennington celebrated its newest affordable housing project with a ribbon cutting event at Downtown Crossing last Thursday. Approximately 40 people including VHFA Public Affairs Manager John Fairbanks attended the event.

The 12-unit development includes four units in a new building on South Street, and eight units in a renovated building on School Street.

The new building (pictured) next to the offices of the Regional Affordable Housing Corp. includes money-saving energy efficient features such as solar panels for heating water, insulation, skylights and triple-glazed windows.

Members of the Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire housing managers associations will come together for their triennial "Crossing the Line" conference this fall.

The event will be held at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vt., Oct. 27-29, under the theme, "Housing: Are the Odds in Your Favor?"

Registration fees range from $50 to $300, with hotel stays at the resort available for an additional fee. Deadline to register is Oct. 9.

Watch for our 2008 Vermont Statewide Housing Conference brochure, hitting the mail later this week.

The conference is coming to South Burlington on Tuesday, November 18.

Registrations are open now. You can register online, or complete the form contained in the brochure and mail it in.

Registration fee is just $40, but goes up to $50 Oct. 18.

We thought Champlain Housing Trust's winning an international award from the United Nations's UN HABITAT earlier this week was pretty big news. (Read our previous post about the award.) Apparently, we weren't the only ones.

The Burlington Free Press writes in an editorial published this morning, the award "is a timely recognition of a worthy effort when affordable housing is such a critical issue in Vermont."

Read the entire editorial that appeared in today's paper.