Take a picture of what you are most thankful for about your home and tag us on Facebook @Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) or Twitter @vhfa for your chance to win a $50 Home Depot gift card. The contest will run until Friday, November 27th and VHFA staff will vote on a winner.

VHFA intends to consider new projects for the federal 9% Housing Credit and Vermont State Housing Credits at the April 2016 VHFA Board of Commissioners meeting. In order to provide sufficient time to review the proposals from developers, VHFA must receive a complete application by January 29, 2016.

Housing preserved by federal and state tax credits -- awarded by VHFA – was recently highlighted as a national example of effective use of public dollars. The $12 million in equity raised by the credits, along with other efforts led by VHFA to keep apartments in the Bobbin Mill and Wharf Lane buildings near Burlington’s waterfront affordable, are the subject of a recent HUD newsletter. 

The number of people who stayed in Vermont's emergency shelters last year and the average length of their stays were at their highest point in a decade. According to a recent report from Vermont's Department for Children and Families (DCF), publicly-supported emergency shelters in the state served 4,303 people in July 2014 through June 2015, up from 3,934 in the prior year.

On average, people stayed in Vermont's shelters 36.8 days. This is higher than in any prior year since 2002--the earliest year for which comparable data is available.