(drumroll please...)

The latest sponsor of the Vermont Statewide Housing Conference is...

A user named "Wharf Lane Residents" has created a petition at Web site Care2 to encourage the owners of Wharf Lane Apartments in Burlington to keep the property affordable.

The 37-unit project might lose its affordability status if the owner sells to the private market. For more background, read the story from Seven Days newspaper.)

They're looking for 1,000 signatures and are currently at 25.

You can sign the petition online.

Fifteen homeless Vermont veterans will receive permanent housing assistance as part of a $58.6 million U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rental assistance program announced last week.

The program will connect homeless veterans from local Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) with rental assistance vouchers provided by local public housing agencies.

Nationwide, nearly 8,000 veterans will benefit.

In Vermont, 15 vouchers will be made available to veterans from the VAMC in White River Junction through the Vermont State Housing Authority.

We've created a Twitter account for the Vermont Statewide Housing Conference: @vtshc.

To facilitate discussion about the conference as we approach the Nov. 18 event, add the hashtag #vshc to your own tweets and we'll re-tweet your comments to the conference's followers.

Follow the conference on Twitter now.