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HUD, VA Provides Permanent Housing and Support to Homeless Vets in Vermont

Posted March 28, 2012

Re-Posted from the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness.

Latest estimate shows national veterans homelessness fell by nearly 12 percent

BOSTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced today that HUD will provide $153,036 to Vermont State Housing Authority to supply permanent housing and case management for more than 25 homeless veterans in Vermont [in addition to the current 95 VASH vouchers administered by the VT State Housing Authority in Vermont].

VA Medical Center               Public Housing Authority        Vouchers        12-month rental assistance
White River Junction            Vermont State Housing                25                 $153,036

The permanent supportive housing assistance announced today is provided through HUD’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH), a program administered by HUD, VA, and local housing agencies across the country.  Read a complete local breakdown of the rental vouchers announced today.

“It’s a national disgrace that one out of every six men and women in our shelters once wore a uniform to serve our country,” said HUD Secretary Donovan. “But we know that by providing housing assistance and case management services, we can significantly reduce the number of veterans living on our streets.  Working together, HUD, VA and local housing agencies are making real progress toward ending veteran homelessness once and for all.”

“Under the leadership of President Obama, we have made significant progress in the fight to end homelessness among veterans, but more work remains,” said VA Secretary Shinseki. “The partnership between the federal government and community agencies across the country has strengthened all of our efforts to honor our veterans and keep us on track to prevent and eliminate veteran homelessness by 2015.”

This funding to local housing agencies is part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to end Veteran and long-term chronic homelessness by 2015.  Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness serves as a roadmap for how the federal government will work with
state and local agreements to confront the root causes of homelessness, especially among former servicemen and women.

The grants announced today are part of $75 million appropriated for Fiscal Year 2012 to support the housing needs of approximately 10,500 homeless veterans.  VA Medical Centers (VAMC) provide supportive services and case management to eligible homeless veterans. This is the first of two rounds of the 2012 HUD-VASH funding.  HUD expects to announce the remaining funding by the end of this summer.

VAMCs work closely with homeless veterans then refer them to public housing agencies for these vouchers, based upon a variety of factors, most importantly the duration of the homelessness and the need for longer term more intensive support to obtain and maintain permanent housing.  The HUD-VASH program includes both the rental assistance the voucher provides and the comprehensive case management that VAMC staff provides.

Veterans participating in the HUD-VASH program rent privately owned housing and generally contribute no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent.  VA offers eligible homeless veterans clinical and supportive services through its medical centers across the U.S., Guam and Puerto Rico.

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HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. More information about HUD and its programs is available at www.hud.gov and http://espanol.hud.gov.  You can also follow HUD on twitter @HUDnews, on facebook at www.facebook.com/HUD, or sign up for news alerts on HUD’s News Listserv.
VA is the federal government’s second-largest cabinet office.  Secretary Shinseki has outlined three key priorities for the department: increase Veteran access to VA services and benefits, eliminate the disability claims backlog, and end Veteran homelessness.  More information about VA is available at www.va.gov.

 

 


This Land Is Your Land: Mobile-home owners find cooperatives the way to roll

Posted March 22, 2012

SEVEN DAYS – Paul Heintz

March 7, 2012

 

For years, Henry Benedict and his neighbors battled the owner of the Swanton mobile-home park where they live. They fought over rent increases. They fought over water and sewage fees. They fought over maintenance issues.

Then, one day last May, Benedict and the 26 other families who live in the Homestead Acres mobile-home park received letters in the mail saying the owner was putting the 50-acre property up for sale. So they did something crazy: They formed a co-op and bought the place themselves.

“Everything happened real fast for us,” says Benedict, who works for the town of Highgate’s recreation department. “There was no time to think about it.”

When the newly named Homestead Acres Cooperative closed on the property in December, it joined the leading edge of a national movement to empower mobile-home residents by helping them buy the properties on which they live. Last month, a mobile-home park in Milton joined Homestead Acres and a park in Windsor to become the third cooperatively owned park established in Vermont in recent years.

The emerging trend is a significant development for the nearly 7000 Vermont families who live in mobile-home parks. While 80 percent of them own their dwellings, 70 percent live in for-profit parks where they have little leverage over the rent they pay for their lots. Despite the name, mobile-homes aren’t all that cheap or easy to move, so when rent goes up or the park changes hands, residents are left hoping for the best.

“We’re kind of stuck here,” says Benedict, sitting on a recliner in the living room of the 14-by-80-foot home he purchased a decade ago. “If you live in a trailer, you can’t just pick up and move.”

Link to Full Seven Days Article

This Land Is Your Land

 


Mobile Home Advocates Push For Easier Funding

Posted



VPR News – Steve Zind

(Host) More than 100 mobile homes were destroyed in the Irene floods last year.

For those who need to borrow money to replace them, the mortgage market is an obstacle because the terms and eligibility requirements are different than they are for other homebuyers.

Advocates in Vermont have been working on a new loan program they hope will pave the way for a better financing model.

VPR’s Steve Zind reports.

(Zind) For mobile home owners, it’s always been more difficult to get a loan compared to regular homebuyers.

Emily Higgins is Director of Home Ownership at Champlain Housing Trust.

(Higgins) “Many financing options have a very high interest rate of perhaps 11 percent and a loan to value requirement that people put 35 percent down as a down payment.”

(Zind) Higgins adds that it’s also harder for mobile home owners to get loans because they’re considered a higher risk.

Higgins has been working with legislators, state officials, banking groups and other non-profits to create a pilot mobile home financing program.

The goal is to raise five and a half million dollars to provide long term low interest loans with lower down payments to 100 mobile home owners affected by Irene.

The money would come from federal funds, philanthropic groups and the state.

Jennifer Hollar is Deputy Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development. Hollar says the hope is to create a program that can sustain itself, using payments from existing loans to finance future ones.

(Hollar) “We know that there are very limited resources there and we want to target them to helping meet the needs that we see post Irene but also want to try to leverage them in a way that can meet an ongoing or broader problem at the same time.”

(Zind) Advocates like Emily Higgins of Champlain Housing Trust say Tropical Storm Irene has brought attention to how important mobile homes are in providing housing for low income Vermonters – and to the need for a better financing program for their owners.

(Higgins) “It’s been a long-term ongoing need and a lot of people have been aware of it but Irene has been a catalyst to force us to realize what a great need there is.”

(Zind) In Montpelier, lawmakers are also looking at other ideas designed to help mobile home owners affected by Irene, including waiving taxes on the purchase and sales of mobile homes.

For VPR news, I’m Steve Zind.

Link to VPR Broadcast

Mobile Home Advocates Push For Easier Financing

 

 


Would a ‘wet shelter’ be a help or a hindrance for Burlington?

Posted March 21, 2012

 

Written by Matt Ryan

“A wet shelter? Come on,” said David
Welch, taking a drag on his cigarette in
front of the Burlington mall. “That’s
influencing drunks to kill themselves. That’s telling them, ‘OK, we’ll pay you to kill yourself.’”Welch, a former homeless drinker now 22 years sober, said he’s old-school. If Burlington wants to help alcoholics living on its streets, a wet shelter — a place with few rules that allows them to arrive drunk — isn’t going to cut it.

“I’m more, ‘Sucks to be you. Go to jail,’”
Welch said. “I drank straight for 16 years, and I did a lot of time in the joint. That’s the only time I sobered up.”

Full Burlington Free Press Article

Would a ‘wet shelter be a hindrance for Burlington

 


Housing Seniors in Rural America: Resources, Advocacy, and Practice

Posted March 5, 2012

HOUSING ASSISTANCE COUNCIL – Joseph N. Belden

Tuesday, June 5 2012 – Wednesday, June 6, 2012

HILTON BURLINGTON
802 859 5055
60 Battery Street
Burlington VT 05401

Description:
REGISTER NOW!  REGISTER NOW!  REGISTER NOW!  REGISTER NOW!  REGISTER NOW!
Join the Housing Assistance Council on June 5-6, 2012 in Burlington, Vermont, for Housing Seniors in Rural America: Resources, Advocacy, and Practice. Made possible with generous support from The Atlantic Philanthropies, this symposium will provide intensive training and information on housing for an aging population in rural America.

One of the most dramatic demographic shifts in U. S. history is the growth of the elderly population.  Rural America has a large and growing senior population, but also often lacks housing resources and capacity. Twenty-five percent of all rural households are occupied by the elderly. Of those homes, 80 percent are homeowner rather than rental properties. In fact, almost half of the rural census tracts in the U.S. have no subsidized rental units for seniors.

Learn more about meeting these emerging needs at HAC’s symposium.  Join policy makers, advocates, and your peers for a 2-day intensive workshop.  The agenda will feature discussions on aging in place, home repair and modification, preservation of senior rental housing, issues in HUD Section 202, the political and funding outlook for senior housing programs, strategies for advocacy, and examples of successful practice.  Also included will be a site visit to outstanding senior housing developments in the Burlington area.  Don’t miss this valuable opportunity to learn and share information on ways to meet the growing needs of the elderly.

Workshop topics will include:
· The Silver Tsunami: Demographics of Aging in Rural Areas
· Outlook for Senior Housing Policy and Programs
· Putting Programs to Work: Preservation of Rural Senior Housing
· Putting Programs to Work: Issues in HUD Section 202
· Putting Programs to Work: Aging in Place
· Advocacy for Senior Housing

Registration Fee: $50

Check the HAC web site for a full agenda.

Questions? Contact Shonterria Charleston at (202) 842-8600 or shtonterria@ruralhome.org. Visit HAC’s WEB SITEat www.ruralhome.org for more information on HAC’s Rural Senior Housing Initiative.


 


Job Posting from AHS Office of Economic Opportunity

Posted February 28, 2012

OEO Community Services Program Administrator

AHS-Office of Economic Opportunity is currently searching for a candidate to fill the position of “OEO Community Services Program Administrator”, recently occupied by the esteemed Angus Chaney (now AHS Director of Housing).

http://humanresources.vermont.gov/

Reference Number:  29716

Title:  OEO Community Serv Prog Adm

Agency:  Dept For Children & Families

Location:  Essex Jct

Description:  Coordinating, policy, advisory, and technical work for the State Office of Economic Opportunity involving development, monitoring and evaluation of multi-source funded community service projects implemented through local community organizations with a focus on ameliorating the effects of poverty. Employees may train and supervise area coordinators in project development and operation. Work is performed under the general direction of an administrative superior. All employees of the Agency of Human Services perform their respective functions adhering to four key practices: customer service, holistic service, strengths-based relationships and results orientation.

 


Job Posting from VSHA

Posted

VSHA CLIENT SERVICES POSITION

Vermont State Housing Authority, statewide affordable housing provider, has a position open for an organized, reliable individual to perform a variety of technical, clerical, hands-on work related to housing programs.  Will conduct routine certifications of tenants to determine appropriate rental subsidy, and communicate verbally and in writing with tenants and landlords regarding housing subsidies.  Position includes telephone and public contact work and is based in Montpelier.  Must be able to multi-task and work in a fast-paced environment, independently or as part of a team.

For position details, requirements and qualifications, visit www.vsha.org.  Cover letter and resume to:  HR, VSHA, 1 Prospect St., Montpelier, VT  05602-3556.  Position open until filled.

VSHA is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

 

 


ECOS Project Notice of Meeting February 16th

Posted February 13, 2012

Wondering what’s happening with the ECOS project that the CCRPC is doing? Wondering how the region’s success with housing may be measured in the future? Come to this meeting to let your voice be heard! Please help us spread the word…

Chittenden County’s ECOS project is attempting to measure the region’s progress towards its housing goal of “increasing the opportunities for safe, decent, energy efficient, affordable, and fair housing for all types of households in diverse neighborhoods.” With such a broad goal, what data could indicate if we were on the right – or wrong – path?

VHFA and the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission are inviting you to help pick the indicators that will be analyzed to gauge success in the future.

Please come to VHFA’s offices (164 St. Paul Street, Burlington) on Thursday, February 16th from 2-4pm to discuss what would be the most appropriate factors to monitor.

Right now, there are some suggested indicators for the housing goal, which is just one of over 40 indicators in the larger project of evaluating the region’s sustainability.

There are more indicators to comment on, for example there is a Social Community goal to “ensure physical access to the built environment (buildings and transportation) for all people” that clearly would apply to housing as well as other goals intended to increase diversity and public engagement.

You are welcome to comment on any of the indicators proposed online through ECOS’ website.

VHFA’s meeting on February 16th will be open to the public as a way of having a collective conversation about what data is available and what is most appropriate as an indicator. If you have any questions, please contact Maura Collins, VHFA’s policy and planning manager.

 

 

 


Vermont To Help Displaced Vermonters Through CDBG Funds

Posted February 2, 2012

VPR News interview with Jen Hollar, Deputy Commissioner  of the Vermont Department of Economic, Housing, & Community Development

A lot of Vermonters displaced by Irene are hoping their home will be bought out by the FEMA hazard mitigation program, which pays up to 75 percent of the home’s pre-storm fair market value.

Jennifer Hollar, Deputy Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development, says the state is committed to helping homeowners who qualify for FEMA mitigation make up that remaining 25 percent gap. Hollar tells VPR’s Mitch Wertlieb, that even for families who don’t qualify for Hazard Mitigation, help could be available in the form of Community Development Block Grants awarded to Vermont from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, in a pool of money totaling more than $21 million.

To listen to the VPR interview

 

 


Public Hearing Announcement

Posted February 1, 2012

Joint Public Hearing on Fiscal Year 2013 state budget on Vermont Interactive Television

House and Senate Committees on Appropriations

Monday, February 13, 2012, 4:00 – 6:30 p.m. – The House and Senate Committees on Appropriations will hold a joint public hearing on Vermont Interactive Television (V.I.T.) to give Vermonters throughout the state an opportunity to express their views about the state budget for fiscal year 2013. All 14 V.I.T. sites will be available for the hearing: Bennington, Brattleboro, Castleton, Johnson, Lyndonville, Middlebury, Montpelier, Newport, Randolph Center, Rutland, Springfield, St. Albans, White River Junction and Williston. V.I.T.’s web site has an up-to-date location listing, including driving directions, addresses and telephone numbers, http://www.vitlink.org/.

For the first time, the budget hearing will be VIEWABLE via the Internet if your computer has flash-based streaming capabilities.

Go to www.vtlink.org/streamingmedia/vtcvitopen.php

Some mobile devices may require additional software.

The Governor’s budget proposal can be viewed at the Department of Finance’s website: http://finance.vermont.gov/state_budget/rec. For information about the format of this event or to submit written testimony, call the House Appropriations Committee office at 802/828-5767 or emailtutton@leg.state.vt.us. Requests for interpreters should be made to the office by 12:00 noon on Monday, January 30, 2012.

 

 


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