The Champlain Housing Trust has been selected to receive a $130,000 grant from the Social Innovation Fund of the Corporation for National and Community Service  

The Crown Point Board of REALTORS® (CBPR) will be distributing a sizable donation from Okemo Mountain Resort's philanthropic Community Challenge fund to local residents still suffering as a result of Tropical Storm Irene.

Melinda Bussino, long-time advocate for homeless Vermonters, died Sunday after suffering a heart attack a week earlier. She was 65.

Melinda was the Executive Director of the Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center, a day center and community food shelf for the homeless and lonely, which she helped found in the late 1980s.

Her years of commitment and leadership providing comfort and shelter to homeless Vermonters, and her tireless advocacy on their behalf, was widely recognized. In 2008, Melinda won the Housing Hero award at VHFA's statewide, biennial Vermont Housing Conference.

According to annual housing vacancy statistics compiled by the Census Bureau, the estimated statewide rental vacancy rate fell in Vermont from 6.1% in 2010 to 4.2% in 2011--the lowest in the nation, with the exception of Oregon. Nationally, the rental vacancy rate was 9.5% in 2011. 

Vermont's owner vacancy rate remained about the same in 2011 at 1.7%. The national owner vacancy rate was 2.5%. 

Review the Census reports.