Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) has been selected as one of the top five small places to work in the state by Vermont Business Magazine. The award program is dedicated to identifying and recognizing the area’s best employers and providing organizations with valuable employee feedback to continue improving. This year, VHFA ranked fourth overall.

VHFA is gathering input and data regarding two components of the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) slated to open later this year. HAF was created by the federal American Rescue Plan Act to provide relief for homeowners experiencing financial hardship after January 2020.

In 2020 Vermont’s Energy Action Network formed a Weatherization at Scale action team, with the goal of weatherizing every home owned or rented by low-to-moderate income Vermonters by 2030. The coalition, which includes Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA), successfully urged Vermont lawmakers and the Governor to invest more than $20 million towards weatherization in the FY 2022 state budget.

A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston finds that rural New England communities suffered larger economic losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic relative to nearby urban centers and rural counties across the United States.