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Champlain Housing Trust Recognizes Leaders and Staff, Elects Board Members at Annual Meeting

Posted January 30, 2012

Burlington, Vermont – Approximately 175 members attended the Champlain Housing Trust’s Annual Meeting Saturday, where three local affordable housing leaders were recognized for their many contributions to creating and sustaining affordable housing in communities throughout northwestern Vermont. Also recognized were four staff for reaching milestones in their service to CHT, including CEO Brenda Torpy, who was saluted for leading the organization for twenty years.

Retired Burlington attorney Neil Mickenberg was presented with the Tim McKenzie Award for Outstanding Contributions to Perpetually Affordable Housing. The award, named after the organization’s first director, was awarded for Mickenberg’s long-term commitment to the Housing Trust’s mission, first as an attorney for the two founding organizations that merged to former CHT, then as a leader of a State established commission to examine the effectiveness of the affordable housing delivery system …

PDF of Full Press Release

 


Vermont Housing & Conservation Coalition Legislative Day

Posted January 23, 2012

SAVE THE DATE: VHCC Legislative Day will be Thursday, February 23, 2012 at the State House in Montpelier.

PLEASE SET ASIDE FEBRUARY 23rd as a day that you and your organization’s key supporters will spend in Montpelier talking and advocating in the Legislature on the importance of Vermont Housing and Conservation Board funding for your organization and the communities it serves.

Governor Shumlin has proposed $14 MILLION FOR VHCB – a $1.2 million increase.  With a $60 million budget deficit, this is a very positive development.

We need members to TURN OUT IN FULL FORCE to support his request and show appreciation.  Already voices in the Legislature have been raised saying that we don’t need to fund conservation when the state needs all available resources to help recover from Irene.  As the Governor has proposed, VHCB will play a key role by providing $2 million over two fiscal years to help homeowners who want buyouts of their destroyed homes, and to towns which seek to convert those parcels to open space and park land.

We need to reaffirm our core message that BOTH conservation and affordable housing are critical economic development investments that must remain a priority as the State meets the challenges of recovery and the fifth consecutive year of budget shortfalls.

Full Information & Tentative Schedule

For further information, contact:

Erhard Mahnke at 233-2902 or erhardm@burlingtontelecom.net

John Shullenberger at 373-2590 or jdsdiann@together.net

Adam Necrason at 223-9988 or necrason@snlawvt.com

 

 


Public Hearing Announcement: Friday, February 17th

Posted January 18, 2012

A public hearing is scheduled for Friday, February 17, 2012, time 10AM, at the Division of Fire Safety office located at 1311 US Route 302 in Berlin, Vermont.

They will also be posted on our division web page soon.

Link to 2012 Draft Access Rules

 


Vermont’s Annual Homeless Memorial Vigil

Posted January 6, 2012

 

Advocates rally for Vermont homeless

Burlington Free Press – Terri Hallenbeck

MONTPELIER — A day when the temperature is 7 degrees out at noon is an appropriate day to highlight homelessness.

On the steps of the Statehouse on Wednesday, Linda Ryan of the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness took her time introducing speakers. The bite of the bitter cold sets in that way and the crowd catches a flavor for how a person without a home might feel, she said.

“We’ve been standing out here on these steps for too many years,” Patrick Flood, deputy secretary of Human Services, said to applause muffled by mittened hands. “In fact, it just seems to get worse every year.”

The death of a homeless man on a Burlington street last month gives the issue renewed urgency, said his boss, Human Services Secretary Doug Racine.

His agency is seeking $1.6 million in the midyear budget adjustment bill that includes money for emergency housing assistance.

Ryan, who is executive director of development at the Samaritan House in St. Albans, said the homeless problem has grown worse. The number of people who have come through her shelter has tripled in the past few years, she said.

Samaritan has four families staying in motels after filling its three apartments, she said. “That’s unheard of in St. Albans,” she said.

Melinda Bussino, executive director of the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center, later told legislators that the overflow, winter-only shelter there has seen a spike in clients from 47 a year ago to 68 this year …

Link to Full Article

Link to PDF of Article

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More News on 2012 Vermont Annual Homeless Memorial Vigil

ABC 22 Video News Story & PDF of Story

 


Gov. Shumlin announces reorganization in Agency of Human Services

Posted December 21, 2011

For Immediate Release

Dec. 20, 2011

Contact - Susan Allen, 802-828-6463 - Doug Racine, 802-871-3003

Gov. Shumlin announces reorganization in Agency of Human Services

MONTPELIER – Gov. Peter Shumlin today announced that Mental Health Commissioner Christine Oliver and Deputy Secretary Patrick Flood will swap positions, with Oliver assuming the role of Deputy Secretary and Flood becoming Commissioner of Mental Health.

The job swap meets two imperatives. First, the announcement of the Governor’s long-term plan for mental health services in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene and the closing of the Vermont State Hospital has created a legislative and strategic challenge for which Patrick Flood is uniquely qualified to address. Irene gave Vermont an opportunity to build the best integrated mental health delivery system in the nation, where quality care and patient needs come first.

Meanwhile, the Agency of Human Services is facing a host of unanticipated management challenges due to both Irene and federal budget cuts.  Christine Oliver’s extensive management and legal experience match well with the Agency’s current needs.

While Oliver dealt with the immediate crisis after the emergency closure of the Vermont State Hospital following severe flooding from Tropical Storm Irene in late August, Flood focused on short-, medium- and long-term options for strengthening Vermont’s mental health system statewide.

“Christine and Patrick have both done an extraordinary job under difficult conditions over the past year,” Governor Shumlin said. “As I have worked closely with them in the wake of Irene, it has become clear to me that at this unique moment, Christine’s background and talents are better suited to managing the Agency’s overall work, while Patrick’s legislative and state government experience make him best suited to helping realize my vision for creating a comprehensive, post-Irene mental health system.”

Gov. Shumlin last week announced the following proposal for mental health delivery in Vermont:

Post Irene: Strengthening Mental Health Services for Vermonters

Pre-Irene: 54 state-operated beds (25-30 used for acute intensive care, the remainder were for patients awaiting discharge)

Cost: $22.5 million operating from General Fund budget annually.

New long term plan:

  • 15 bed state managed facility in central Vermont – can be expanded (Fletcher Allen will provide 7 to 10 intensive inpatient beds while this facility is being constructed and staffed)
  • 14 beds at Brattleboro Retreat
  • 6 at Rutland Regional Medical Center
  • Up to 5 beds secure residential on campus of Windsor Correctional Facility
  • Cost: $26.6 million in capital expenses (insurance policy/FEMA may cover some or all)

Additional community services:

  • Step down beds (transitional beds as people move off acute care)
  • Improved emergency services
  • Improved individualized services
  • Housing vouchers and peer services (people who have been patients who now are willing to run services for others – hotline, beds any number of supports)
  • Cost: $16 million gross; $7 million General Fund; the remainder is federal matching funds
  • Total number of beds under this Post Irene plan: 70

Susan Allen

Special Assistant to the Governor

802-828-3333

 

 

 


Graduate Level Housing Policy Course

Posted

Mondays from 4 to 7pm* - 456 Waterman Hall, Burlington - January 23rd to May 7th

This is a unique time in history when so much public dialogue is focused on housing policy and finance. This spring semester’s Housing Policy course will study the history and debate the future of the following topics:

  • Federal housing finance system
  • Federal government’s role in housing policy
  • How the private market delivers the public good of housing
  • Devolution of funding to state and local players
  • How Vermont’s housing system was formed and evaluate its efforts
  • Housing’s intricate relationship with: energy usage, transportation costs, health care, and jobs
  • Goals of affordable housing programs and the evolution of programs and goals based on historical failures
  • Homeownership initiatives such as Vermont’s Community Land Trusts, mobile homes, and homeownership counseling
  • Role of rental housing policy in an ownership society
  • Housing safety and habitability, landlord/tenant rights in Vermont, and fair housing
  • Tools and incentives that support or limit housing creation, such as inclusionary zoning, smart growth, local and state permitting, and the impact of community opposition to development
  • Unique housing needs of elders, people with disabilities and people who are homeless

Course taught by Maura Collins, Policy and Planning Manager at Vermont Housing Finance Agency. No text book is required and course work will draw from national and local case studies utilizing several Vermont-based experts representing diverse perspectives on housing finance and development, including:

  • A local planner from a rural Vermont community
  • A private developer of affordable and market rate housing
  • A low income housing advocate
  • And several more…

To Register for the Course:

  • Non-UVM students: https://learn.uvm.edu/register/
  • Enrolled UVM students: http://www.uvm.edu/~rgweb/
  • The course is: PA395, CRN 14044

Email Maura at mcollins@vhfa.org with questions

Housing Policy Course Flyer

 


VRSC Workshop: Bridges Out of Poverty on March 21, 2012

Posted December 12, 2011

The Vermont Resident Service Coordinators are offering a workshop, Bridges Out of Poverty, on March 21, 2012.  Attached please find the VRSC announcement for this event.   Bridges Out of Poverty is a renown workshop and Prudence is an excellent trainer.

There is no fee to attend this half day event for VHMA members as a result of our recent VRSC/VHMA partnership.  There is a $10 fee for materials and the workbook, which is payable the day of the event.

If you have any questions, please contact highgate2@maloneyproperties.com or call 860-995-9897.

Workshop Flyer

 

 


Fourteen new affordable apartments in Randolph

Posted

There was standing room only at the Salisbury Square Apartments’ ribbon cutting in Randolph yesterday. Julie Iffland, Executive Director of Randolph Area Community Development Corporation (RACDC), thanked supporters and provided tours of the fourteen new, energy efficient, affordable apartments.  Ten apartments are located in two new buildings on School Street, and four apartments are in a new addition to a historic building that was once part of the Ethan Allen Furniture Company.

Adjacent to Randolph’s downtown, the apartments are within walking distance of services and stores. RACDC spent years cleaning up the site which had been environmentally contaminated. The site includes open space and permits are in place to build for-sale homes as the real estate market improves.

RACDC’s board and staff devoted considerable planning time and care to ensure that this new neighborhood meets the needs of the Randolph community. Sixty applications have already been submitted for the 14 new apartments.

This project was funded with a combination of sources including: pre-development loans and Housing Credits and Tax Credit Assistance Program funding from VHFA; HUD’s Economic Development Initiative; Vermont Housing & Conservation Board; Vermont Community Development Program; Vermont Community Loan Fund; Vermont Brownfields Revitalization Fund; Vermont Community Foundation; and Housing Credit Investors Mascoma Bank and Housing Vermont’s Green Mountain Equity Fund.

Link to Original Posting

 

 


Champlain Housing Trust Wins $100,000 Housing for Everyone Award from TD Charitable Foundation

Posted November 29, 2011

Award to help expand affordable lending program

Burlington, Vermont – The Champlain Housing Trust announced today that the organization has been selected as a winner of the TD Charitable Foundation’s 2011 Housing for Everyone competition, one of 25 selected nationally out of a pool of about 500 submissions.

The Housing for Everyone award comes with a $100,000 grant to advance CHT’s efforts to provide and sustain affordable housing in northwestern Vermont. The grant specifically will be dedicated to an expansion of the Champlain Housing Loan Fund, CHT’s affordable lending arm, including attaining Community Development Financial Institution certification from the United States Treasury.

“We are so very thankful for TD’s support of our work to grow and diversify our programs to build sustainability in these uncertain times,” said Brenda Torpy, CEO of the Housing Trust. “We are challenged by the need for our services even as mainly traditional funding sources have diminished, so we are appreciative that the TD Charitable Foundation stepped forward to help us build our capacity to grow towards the future.”

This year’s Housing for Everyone theme was Building for the Future, focusing on three critical areas in affordable housing:

  • Energy efficiency, including weatherization initiatives, HVAC improvements, or implementation of alternative or renewable energy sources;
  • Capacity building, including the expansion of programmatic efforts or staff development for organizations that provide affordable housing services for low-to-moderate-income individuals or in low-to-moderate-income communities. Infrastructure investment to expand services provided will also be considered;
  • And new unit creation, where organizations focus their efforts on the creation of new affordable housing units that benefit low-to-moderate-income individuals or communities.

The Housing for Everyone grant competition is one of the TD Charitable Foundation’s most widely known signature programs. The competition invites local non-profit organizations from Maine to Florida to submit proposals outlining their plans and initiatives to support and provide affordable housing initiatives in their communities. Twenty-five organizations throughout TD Bank’s footprint from Maine to Florida were awarded a $100,000 grant for a total grant donation of $2.5 million in 2011.

Full Press Release

 


Rutland project new affordable housing model

Posted November 1, 2011

Rutland, Vermont – October 28, 2011

A new generation of affordable housing was unveiled Thursday in Rutland.

The Hickory Street community is the first of it’s kind in New England. The project includes 33 mixed income units ranging from one bedroom apartments to single family homes.  The neighborhood was ten years in the making.  It has new streets, energy efficient buildings, solar panels, basketball courts and even onsite maintenance.

“I think that the unique part of Hickory Street Apartments is that we moved out of a traditional public housing model, which tends to isolate folks from the rest of the community, into more of a mixed income community that sort of naturally flows into the surrounding neighborhood,” said Kevin Loso with the Rutland Housing Authority.

Leases have already been signed for nearly two-thirds of those units.

Article Taken From wcax.com

PDF: Rutland project new affordable housing model

URL:Rutland project new affordable housing model

 


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