VHFA Policy & Planning Manager Maura Collins will be a featured speaker at tonight's "Put People First: Housing is a Human Right" event in Barre.

Presented by the Vermont Workers' Center in Burlington, the event examines the issue of how we can meet the needs of working class people to achieve housing justice.

Maura will speak about Vermont's affordable housing needs, and how you can get involved locally.

The event runs from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at the Aldrich Public Library, 6 Washington St., Barre.

For more information, call 861-4VWC.

Three reports from the Center for Community Capital conclude that job and income losses are driving today's foreclosures, and suggest solutions.

The first wave of foreclosures were mostly the result of bad mortgage products and policy, according to the Center. Since the first quarter of 2009, however, the driving factors have been the loss of jobs and income.

The Center concludes, "In the long run, foreclosures that result because borrowers lose their jobs require new solutions that focus on the underlying issues of unemployment, such as the Hardest Hit Fund, and are flexible and targeted.

National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" aired a story yesterday in which they set the Case-Shiller home price index to music. Enjoy.

The recent recession pushed the number of renters who pay more than half their income for housing to record levels, according to a report released today by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS).

The report, “America’s Rental Housing: Meeting Challenges, Building on Opportunities," finds even prior to the recession, long-term increases in rents and utility costs combined with falling renter incomes put strain on many renters’ budgets.

The recession made matters worse, increasing the cost burden on working and middle class Americans.