Peter Shumlin and Brian Dubie, the Democratic and Republican candidates for governor, still plan on speaking at the joint meeting of the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness and the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition (VAHC) Sept. 22.

VHFA Policy and Planning Manager Maura Collins will be speaking at the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) in Boston next month.

She'll be part of the "New Media in the Internet Age" panel, speaking about VHFA's use of social media like Facebook and Twitter.

For the first time, more people placing calls to employee-assistance lines are requesting help for housing problems than for the previously most common reason, child care.

The numbers come from a new report by ComPsych, which has tracked employee-assistance calls since 1984. The report looked at 25,000 calls placed between January and June of this year.

Housing, specifically moving, was the topic of 41% of all calls. Child care had 32%, elder care 17%, and health care, 10%.

The U.S. Census Bureau released figures today showing the nation's poverty rate jumped to 14.3% in 2009. That's the highest level since '94.

That rate indicates 43.6 million Americans are poor — the highest number in the nation's 51 years of keeping track.

The Office of Management and Budget defines poverty for 2009 as earning less than $21,954 for a family of four.