A bus from The Edge Kids & Fitness after school program brought 25 young helpers to VHFA yesterday for the Agency’s annual mitten stuffing. Aliya  (pictured) and her fellow elves got right to work in VHFA’s board room, helping to stuff 175 sets of mittens, hats and gloves with candy. VHFA will deliver the bounty this afternoon to the Sara Holbrook Center and King Street Youth Center for distribution to local kids and teens in need. 

VHFA sends out a big thanks to all of the knitters and shoppers who donated such high quality outerwear for this wonderful holiday event!

Two measures that help address the affordable housing needs of low-income Vermonters are likely to be passed in federal tax and omnibus spending bills on Capitol Hill this month.

The tax bill makes permanent the 9 percent minimum Low-Income Housing Tax Credit rate. A fixed minimum rate will bring much-needed predictability to the process of developing affordable rental housing.

Earlier this week, HUD published the final 2016 Fair Market Rent standards that will take effect as of tomorrow, December 11, 2015. FMRs are intended to represent the dollar amount below which 40 percent of the standard-quality rental housing units in an area are rented. They are used in HUD rental assistance programs, including the Section 8 and HOME programs.

In half of Vermont’s counties, the new FMRs are slightly higher than last year. However, in the more densely populated Burlington-South Burlington metropolitan area, FMRs decreased by about 8 percent due to a change in the methodology used there.

Cathedral Square recently won the Annual TD Charitable Foundation Housing for Everyone Affordable Housing Grant Competition and was awarded $100,000 to help fund the construction of Elm Place. The theme for this year's "Housing for Everyone" was Affordable Housing for Seniors. This theme focused on the development of safe, affordable and accessible housing for adults 55 and over.