The Vermont Agency of Human Services and other Vermont housing organizations are sponsoring a series of "Housing Now" community meetings across the state.

The series is part of an initiative to build better connections among housing and service agencies in the state.

"Many housing providers have expressed the need to better understand the network of supportive services available in their community for tenants. The question of 'who to call' when crisis erupts is one that stretches to many corners of the state," reads a letter to housing providers signed by VHFA Executive Director Sarah Carpenter and other housing agency heads.

VHFA is looking for a firm (or combination of firms) to perform one or a combination of financial advisory services. We've published a request for proposal (RFP) document at vhfa.org to help us in our search.

The contract will likely begin in July. Deadline for replies is April 15.

Learn more about the RFP online, and don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected] with your questions. We'll be posting your questions, and our answers, on the RFP page.

VHFA Investment Manager Scott Baker celebrates his 20th anniversary with the Agency this month.

Scott joined VHFA's Finance Department on March 28, 1988, as Investment Officer. He was promoted from Senior Financial Analyst to his current position last August.

At a staff gathering that fell on St. Patrick's Day, Scott (left) was presented with the Agency's traditional 20th anniversary gift, a VHFA captain's chair, before receiving an Irish blessing from Chief Financial Officer Tom Connors (right).

Housing Matters has transitioned from a bi-monthly electronic newsletter to a blog.

After publishing nearly 40 issues of our newsletter over the past six years, we've retooled Housing Matters to make it more dynamic and timely.

From now on, we'll publish stories in blog format — posting individual stories online as soon as they're written.

The new format will allow us to publish housing news and matters of interest more quickly than our old bi-monthly format.

You can still browse back issues of the Housing Matters newsletter.