Executive Director Sarah Carpenter joined partners from Cathedral Square and other agencies to launch construction of Elm Place, a 30-unit building for seniors in Milton. Elm Place will be Vermont’s first multi-family building certified to Passive House standards. Better windows and doors, added insulation and improved air sealing are expected to enable the building to use roughly 65 percent less energy. 

The project has an anticipated opening date of March 2017. Residents will benefit from Support and Services at Home (SASH) care coordination which supports aging in place through an on-site SASH coordinator and part-time wellness nurse. Two apartments are fully ADA accessible and all apartments are adaptable.

Thanks to a local survey commissioned by Vermont State Housing Authority,  the Fair Market Rent standards used for HUD's Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers in Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties will be revised upward effective today.  The levels established in December 2015 by HUD were 16 percent lower than the new levels. 

The survey of rents in the Burlington metro area was funded by VHFA and other partner agencies.  Read more.

Faced with increasing numbers of low-income renters who lack affordable housing, VHFA and our counterparts from other states are working together to support a bill developed by Washington State Senator Maria Cantwell. The bill calls for a substantial expansion of the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit—the primary financing mechanism for affordable rental housing for the last 30 years.  

Paul Dettman will retire this week as Burlington Housing Authority’s (BHA) Executive Director, a post he held for the past 20 years. With Dettman at the helm, the Burlington Housing Authority’s role has grown to managing over 600 affordable apartments and providing rental assistance to 1,700 low-income Chittenden County residents. In addition, Dettman partnered with VHFA to preserve the affordability of many area apartments when original federal contracts from the 1970s and 1980s expired and presented owners with opportunities to sell the buildings and change their use. The most recent properties to benefit from Dettman’s effective preservation strategies are Burlington’s Bobbin Mill and Wharf Lane apartment buildings.