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

PLEASE SET ASIDE FEBRUARY 23^rd 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

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

Link to 2012 Draft Access Rules

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

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