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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

 


West Rutland School Is Model Of Energy Efficiency

Posted October 31, 2011

(Host) Senator Bernie Sanders was in West Rutland Friday to celebrate the rebirth of a historic elementary school into affordable, energy efficient housing. As VPR’s Nina Keck reports, Sanders calls the $4.3 million dollar redevelopment project a model for the nation.

(Keck)  West Rutland’s Stanislaus School was built in 1924.  By the late 1970s, however, the stately red brick building and the convent next door sat empty and unused.   An effort to turn the school into condominiums failed. But Elisabeth Kulas, Executive Director of the Housing Trust of Rutland County, saw potential….

Article Taken From vpr.net

PDF: West Rutland School Is Model Of Energy Efficiency

URL: West Rutland School Is Model Of Energy Efficiency

 

 

 


Common rental application for housing assistance in Vermont

Posted October 24, 2011

Over the past 18 months, VHFA, the Vermont Housing Managers Association (VHMA) and other statewide housing providers and advocates have been working on the concept of developing a universal rental application that could meet the basic needs of most housing programs in Vermont.  A streamlined approach has been requested by rental applicants, case managers and social service agencies working with rental applicants for years.  The need to simplify the process was identified in June at Governor Shumlin’s Housing the Homeless Summit and is even more pressing with the housing issues following the devastation wrought by Irene.

Article Taken From vhfa.org

PDF: Common Rental Application for Housing Assistance

URL: Common Rental Application for Housing Assistance in Vermont

 


Affordable Housing Preservation Workshop

Posted October 19, 2011

Affordable Housing Preservation: Where Have We Been, What Have We Learned and Where Are We Going?

Please join the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board for a workshop and discussion focusing on Affordable Housing Preservation in Vermont. The workshop will be held at the Noble Lounge, Vermont College in Montpelier.

Topics for the day will include the funding outlook for preservation projects, proposed housing preservation legislation, and development related concerns. Presenters will include Amy Wright of Cathedral Square, Sarah Carpenter and Sam Falzone of VHFA,  Bob McDonald of USDA, Jennifer Hollar of DEHCD, and Gus Seelig of VHCB.

Registration info to follow soon.

When: Friday December 9th

Where: The Noble Lounge, Vermont College in Montpelier

 

 


New England Housing Network Annual Conference

Posted October 6, 2011

SAVE THE DATE: New England Housing Network Annual Conference

Friday, December 2, 2011

8:30 AM – 3:30 PM

Sheraton Needham Hotel, Needham, MA

Featured Speakers:

  • Xavier de Sousa Briggs, Associate Professor of Sociology and Urban Planning, MIT (Formerly, Associate Director, White House Office of Management and Budget)
  • Barbara Burnham, Director of Federal Policy, LISCSheila Crowley, President, National Low Income Housing Coalition
  • Barbara Fields, New England Regional Administrator, HUDEthan Handelman, Vice President for Policy and Advocacy, National Housing Conference
  • Margaret Salazar, Senior Housing Program Specialist, HUD
  • Barbara Sard, Vice President for Housing Policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities(Additional National Speakers to be Announced)

Workshops:

  • Housing Finace Reform and Tax Credit Changes
  • Impact of Federal Budget Cuts
  • Section 8: Creative Approaches with Limited Resources
  • The New Reality for Public HousingSustainable Communities
  • Housing Counseling: Best Practices and Future Plans

New England Housing Network Lead Agencies:

  • Connecticut Housing Coalition
  • Citizen’s Housing & Planning Association, MA
  • Maine Affordable Housing Coalition
  • Housing Action New Hampshire
  • Housing Action Coalition of Rhode Island
  • Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition

To register and obtain the conference brochure, click here

To register online, click here

Save the Date & Conference Announcement

 


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