Our friends at Champlain Housing Trust (CHT) in Burlington are playing host to 25 housing leaders from 13 countries and six continents this week. The guests are here all week to study CHT's model of housing delivery.

The week starts today with current and former mayors of Burlington greeting the guests, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (invited), Mayor Bob Kiss and former Mayor Peter Clavelle.

The Burlington City Council will officially welcome the delegation Monday evening at their Council meeting.

Throughout the week, there'll be tours of CHT properties in Chittenden and Franklin counties.

The National Housing Conference (NHC), an affordable housing advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., has released 10 suggestions to help repair the mortgage market and reduce the rising number of foreclosures.

The "Ten Key Principles" that require action by Congress and the Obama administration are available on the NHC Web site. They're the result of an NHC-commissioned industry-wide task force that studied the issue.

"Bold, strong actions are needed," NHC President/CEO Conrad Egan (pictured) said in a statement released yesterday.

Foreclosure-Response.org is presenting "Making It Work," a series of four free webinars providing practical information on areas that are challenging for those attempting to implement neighborhood stabilization plans (NSP).

The sessions will be useful to NSP grantees and partners, as well as others working on this issue.

The "Making It Work" series will take place on four consecutive Tuesdays: Sept. 15, 22, 29 and Oct. 6. Each session will consist of a webinar followed by an online discussion.

Learn more and register online.

Five Chittenden Bank lenders have been named top VHFA originators for fiscal year 2009: Michelle Shambo, Addison County; Debbie Corey, Bennington County; Laurie Laliberte, Rutland County; Cathy Eakins, Windham County; and Barbara Yankee, Windsor County.

Congratulations to all!

We'll have a few more to announce before too long.