Join us for a lunchtime conversation on Just Cause Eviction on Friday, Feb. 26 – 12:30-1:30pm.
Panelists include Brian Pine, speaking on behalf of the Just Cause Coalition, Michael Monte from Champlain Housing Trust, Bor Yang from the Vermont Human Rights Commission, and Christie Delphia from the Burlington Tenants Union.
This conversation will highlight the ways language similar to Just Cause is already being used by nonprofit housers across Vermont, why evictions should be avoided & when they are actually necessary, and how Just Cause can combat housing discrimination. This lunchtime conversation will be recorded and have time at the end for a Q & A session.
Regarding the Just Cause Opposition’s recent disinformation campaign:
On Monday Morning of February 22nd, leaders from Rights & Democracy VT, Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, The Black Perspective, Burlington City Council, Burlington Tenants Union, Burlington VT Democrats Vermont, state representative Kesha Ram -among others- came forward to address a recent disinformation campaign lead by the opposition to Just Cause. Leaders condemn the red lawn signs designed to scare tenants, spread baseless statements and co-op racial equity language.
While Martin Luther King Day is relegated to one day each year, it is important to remember that the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s lives on, his advocacy and preaching never loosing relevance in our day-to-day. Throughout our Vermont communities, folks came together to reflect and celebrate the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s commitment to justice.
The Fair Housing Project’s partner, the Old North End Arts Center, celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy with their Better World Camp. The ONE Art Center invited kids to explore kindness through art projects, focusing on fun and the different ways the children can express themselves. They spent MLK Day by making art projects in a variety of media, practicing drama, storytelling, dancing, playing organized games, asking kids to think about What is service to others?
Photos by Brian Letizia, courtesy of Old North End ArtsPhotos by Brian Letizia, courtesy of Old North End ArtsPhotos by Brian Letizia, courtesy of Old North End Arts
The pandemic has put unprecedented stress on our communities, our families, our coworkers, our neighbors. But as we move into the safety of the zoom cyber space, collaboration has become second nature. Organizations have the flexibility to not only cohost conversation across sectors, but even for connections to be built across state lines. The City of Burlington hosted this thought-provoking panel on Reparations and Reconciliation, inviting not just local city officials and scholars, but representatives from other cities experiencing their own Reparations and Reconciliation discussions and legislative actions.
The Providence family of Guilford includes, from left, Justin, Rohan, Sherry, “Prov” and Aaron. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger
Following the themes advocates and leaders raised in this conversation, in this VT Digger article, Rohan and his brothers, Aaron and Justin Providence, share a vulnerable conversation about their experiences growing up Black in Vermont with a level of candidness new even to their own family.
“You have to take a step back and just listen,” Rohan tells VT Digger, echoing a sentiment not only shared in the city hosted panel on Reparation and Reconciliation, but an echo of Black voices since the beginning of the racial justice movement. With vulnerable honesty, this family shares their story to illustrate what must be done all across Vermont: frank conversations about race and racism in our communities.
That “raw truth” is core to this powerful commentary from Kesha Ram (D-Chittenden), Vermont’s first woman of color to serve in the state Senate. State Senator Ram points to the glaring racial disparities in COVID-19 rates, policing, and homeownership as the true causes of Vermont’s prevalent & persistent whiteness. Ram corrects the popular and comfortable opinion that Vermont’s lack of racial diversity can be solved merely through more rigorous recruitment, adding critical insight to an urgent equity issue in our state.
You can find the rest of Burlington’s recorded MLK Day events, including a story walk organized by Fletcher Free Library that you can still participate in on your own, here.
2020 is finally coming to an end. We are tired, and many of us have faced significant losses this year. But throughout this past year, communities across our state and country have demonstrated amazing acts of resiliency, building their own resources and support networks in their time of need. We at the Fair Housing Project want to take some time to reflect on the inspiring lessons we can glean from the grassroots, community-centered solutions which have grown throughout 2020, and will continue to be essential cornerstones of thriving communities for years to come.
Chittenden County has a critical shortage of housing, particularly housing that is affordable to those earning below the Area Median Income. This housing shortage puts a greater burden on marginalized communities by allowing landlords to be more selective in how they rent to tenants and allowing for more discrimination. This recent VPR investigation digs deeper into some of the ways housing segregation continues to persist in communities across New England – including Vermont- and how that impacts the lives of those affected.
Chittenden County currently has a vacancy rate of 2.6%, which while higher than the 1.8% of 2018, is still well below the healthy vacancy rate is 5%
The “Building Homes Together” campaign was started in 2016 to encourage the production of more housing. Its annual report shows that market-rate housing production has been steady for the past four years, but Chittenden County has repeatedly failed to meet the campaign’s target for new permanently affordable homes, leaving a gap for those who are already struggling to make ends meet and those who have been impacted by the economic hardships of the coronavirus crisis.
The campaign, supported by over a hundred local and state officials, nonprofits, businesses, and individuals, set a five year goal of 3,500 new homes in Chittenden County with 20% of them permanently affordable. This amounts to an annual target of 700 overall homes with 140 affordable; the average over the first four years is 787 homes, but of those homes only 112 were affordable.
“We did see a spike in 2019 of new affordable homes with 169 built, but that followed three years of missing our target,” said Nancy Owens, co-President of Evernorth. “The increase in 2019 demonstrates that new capital from the Housing for All Revenue Bond passed in the State of Vermont in 2017 was essential to meet this critical housing need, but it hasn’t been enough.”
Other economic, social and public health factors are in play. “While 2020 has been consumed by the coronavirus and calls for racial justice, it’s also been a year where safe, decent and affordable housing has been even more obviously lacking in our communities. We need to do better,” said Brenda Torpy, CEO of the Champlain Housing Trust, noting that at one point this summer there were 2,000 homeless Vermonters living in hotels and motels
Champlain Housing Trust, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission and Evernorth (formerly Housing Vermont) are jointly calling for local, state and federal policymakers to fund affordable housing and make housing a priority in responding to the economic, racial and health injustices of our current time.
We are in an unprecedented moment, still deep into a health crisis that has magnified existing economic and health disparities and has destabilized our country, state, and communities. Meanwhile, there is a tremendous energy for civic engagement and people are finding ways to make positive change at the local level and to support their neighbors.
It’s clear that safe, affordable homes are the foundation for opportunity and there is a strong correlation between health disparities and housing opportunity, especially for people of color and others in protected classes. Thousands of Vermonters were already in a precarious housing situation before covid – and tens of thousands more struggle to find affordable, and accessible homes.
A local housing committee can be an effective tool for addressing housing needs and promoting equal housing opportunity in towns and cities of all sizes. These committees can take the form of a municipally-supported committee, subcommittee of the planning commission, resident advocacy group, housing discussion meet-up, or any other group that seeks to support or change the quality, quantity, affordability, and/or inclusiveness of housing in a community.
This interactive webinar provides an overview of the role and function of Housing Committees with examples from municipalities around the state. We will discuss how a local Housing Committee can help your community address housing needs and challenges, engage residents, and help advance community planning priorities.
COVID-19 takes its greatest toll on the most vulnerable, oppressed, and marginalized in our communities.
The Vermont Housing Finance Agency examines racial inequity in VT homeownership as it relates to the states history of housing segregation & communities of color current vulnerabilities during the pandemic.
The National Fair Housing Alliance reported an uptick in housing discrimination complaints throughout the pandemic, some of our hardest hit communities nationally included homeless populations and low-income, essential workers, the pandemic disproportionately affected people of color and housing advocates argue the nation’s history of housing segregation is at fault. The pandemic has forced our housing communities to adapt in many ways.
The Harbor Place motel in Burlington, Vt. Photo courtesy of Champlain Housing Trust
The good news is that here in Vermont we have pulled out some remarkable solutions. This spring housing advocates effectively temporarily ended homelessness in our state. Our own Champlain Housing Trust garnered national attention with this Shelterforce article for its ingenuity with the pre-exisiting Harbor Place, a former motel purchased by Champlain Housing Trust to provide services and transitional housing to homeless individuals. In Woodstock, a mutual aid group, the Woodstock Area Relief Fund, raised $320,000- nearly half of which went to rent and mortgage relief. Vermont passed an eviction moratorium, a critical but complicated law which gave renters much needed relief during a time when unemployment was skyrocketing and many did not know when they would return to the workforce. In April we hosted a Fair Housing Friday about renters’ rights during COVID-19 highlighting the eviction moratorium, which has been extended to Sept. 30. New reports show that Vermont has the 2nd lowest rate of pandemic-related housing insecurity. And this month the Rental Housing Stabilization Program started receiving applications.
If you missed our most recent Fair Housing Friday webinar about the Rent Stabilization program, you can watch the full video here.
The Rental Stabilization funds landlords on behalf on tenants who are in need of help paying past due rent. The program is intended to prevent folks from being evicted so that people can safely shelter in place during the pandemic. For this reason, people can apply even if their rental arrearage is not strictly related to the pandemic and *may* be able to use the program for back rent from before the pandemic. Both the tenant and the landlord have to apply. The program has $25 million and applications are first come, first serve. Applicants have to be income-eligible and their rent has to meet the affordability requirements set by Vermont Housing Finance Agency, about $1,464 for a two-bedroom apartment in the Burlington and South Burlington area, and $1,199 for a two-bedroom in Central Vermont. Two weeks into the program, already an estimated 1,400 households applied for rental assistance.
Some of the questions asked during the webinar:
Q: If I have two tenants behind on rent applying for Rental Rehabilitation program and I only want to keep one of the tenants as a renter, can I apply for one renter and not the other?
A: That sounds like a violation of the Fair Housing Act. It would depend on the situation, and we caution everyone to head state and federal fair housing laws that protect against specific tenants from protected classes.
The point of the program is to provide rental arrearage money so that everyone stays housed where they are.
Q: A lot of the callers to Vermont Tenants hotline don’t have access to the internet and won’t be able to download even a pdf of the application. Where would we refer folks for assistance?
A: You can download the pdf on your phone using mobile data. If you are unable to do that, you can work with your landlord to get the application, call Community Action, call Vermont LegalAid, or call the Vermont State Housing Authority for the application to get mailed to you.
Q: What is the turnaround time for the application?
A: There are 10 working days for Vermont State Housing Authority to respond to the application, which may be a confirmation of a yes – in which case the payment will go directly to the landlord on the 1st and 3rd week of the month, or it may be a referral to Vermont LegalAid.
Q: Will tenants be denied if they indicate on the application that their rent is unsustainable?
A: No. That question is there only if people have the option to move to a more affordable place, and needs help to pay for rent for a more affordable apartment.
Q: If a tenant has already submitted their portion of the application and the landlord has not, how does the tenant move forward?
A: The Vermont State Housing Authority will match applications. If we are not able to get the landlord portion of the application, we will refer the tenant to Vermont LegalAid. If your landlord says they won’t submit an application, you can ask them to call the Vermont Landlord Association. Ultimately, a landlord cannot be forced to apply for the program.
The Vermont State Housing Authority has a full FAQ page which can be found here.
Applications for the Rental Stabilization Program can be found here.
There were a lot of resources we referenced in the webinar, and the full list has been uploaded here.
Always, we ask that if you have questions or concerns about your tenancy, please call our Vermont Tenants Hotline at (802) 864-0099
