National Fair Housing Month is held every April to celebrate the anniversary of the passage of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act. At the same time, it is an opportunity to increase our efforts to end housing discrimination and raises awareness of housing rights.

Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA)’s HousingData.org website has recently been updated to display the latest housing data available. The data updates include the newly released 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as 2018 home sales data from the Vermont Department of Taxes.

Nearly 90% of extremely low-income Vermont renters spend an unaffordable amount of their income on housing costs, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)’s recently released annual report The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes. The report highlights a critical shortage in the availability of affordable housing across the country.

This commentary by VHFA Executive Director Maura Collins appeared recently on VTDigger

There is only so much room in our budgets for housing, heating, and transportation, and when we sit down to pay our bills it’s clear how inextricably linked each of these are.

When thinking about our budgets, too many Vermonters are faced with an affordability crisis. Volatile fossil fuel prices and old, leaky homes combine to make winters uncertain and uncomfortable.