VHFA's Development Department has launched new loan programs made possible by the MacArthur Foundation.

Our new pre-development loan program serves preservation projects. Participants are required to make monthly interest payments, with principal due at construction closing.

Also new are equity bridge loans and energy/capital improvement loans. Both are short-term loans — up to three years — designed to facilitate preservation transactions. Interest is payable monthly; principal due on maturity.

Vermont Public Radio aired a story this morning about foreclosures in Vermont.

Vermont Deputy Commissioner of Banking and Securities and VHFA Commissioner Thomas Candon is heard in the segment, reported by Susan Keese.

Listen to the story or read a transcript online.

A study released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) concludes government pays more to provide the homeless with emergency shelter than it would to provide permanent rental housing.

"We are paying for a form of housing that is largely substandard, and we are paying as much, if not more, than standard conventional housing," according to University of Pennsylvania professor Dennis Culhane, quoted in USA Today.

The study is based on 9,000 families and individuals.

More than 100 supporters traveled to the Statehouse for the recent Legislative Day to build awareness and support for the Vermont Housing & Conservation Coalition.