Tag Archives: economic development
Vermont Housing and Conservation Board Will Use $35 Million in Bond Funds to Address Vermont’s Housing Shortage
Passing this Vermont Housing and Conservation Board press release forward from A Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition news item.
PRESS RELEASE
June 28, 2017
Contact: Gus Seelig, Executive Director, 828-3251, gus@vhcb.org
Jen Hollar, Director of Policy and Special Projects: cell: 793-7346; Jennifer@vhcb.org
The Vermont Housing & Conservation Board will use $35 million in new funding for the creation of rental housing and home ownership opportunities for 550-650 low- and moderate-income Vermonters over the next two to three years. The bold, new initiative represents the largest state investment in housing in more than a decade. It was first proposed by Governor Phil Scott in his January budget address, gained strong support in the legislature, and was signed into law today.
Governor Scott said, “When workers are unable to find adequate, affordable housing, economic growth is constrained. Vermont has a very low rate of rental vacancy and we need to increase access to homeownership. This effort will ratchet up the production of new housing to serve households at a wide range of incomes, spur economic growth, create jobs, and have a significant impact on Vermont’s supply of housing.”
Tim Ashe, President Pro Tempore of the Vermont Senate, said, “I’ve seen the housing shortage up close. In my time at Cathedral Square, we’d fill up new buildings within hours. Literally. So when I met with Governor Scott in November and we both expressed a strong interest in seeing more housing supply, I knew it was a matter of how we’d do it, not if we’d do it. I want to thank Senators Mullin, Sirotkin, Balint, Baruth, and Clarkson and Representative Head and her team for their hard work to see it to the finish line.”
Helen Head, Chair of the Vermont House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee, said, “Vermont’s housing crunch has been well-documented. According to a study commissioned by the legislature last summer, we can reduce homelessness dramatically with a targeted approach, creating more housing with support services along with housing for the lowest income households. Middle income households also struggle to find housing. This housing initiative will address the needs of a wide range of Vermonters and we’re proud to support it.”
Gus Seelig, Executive Director of VHCB, said, “We appreciate the support of the Governor and the Legislative Leadership in advancing this exciting initiative. The first 100 homes should be under construction across the state before the end of the year.”
The bond funds will be matched with state, federal, and private sources to leverage approximately $2-$3 for every one dollar of bond funds, resulting in $70-100 million in additional resources for housing development. Spending on affordable housing yields multiple benefits across the economy. The $35 million housing bond will also act as a stimulus package, generating millions of dollars of economic activity through the creation of jobs and the purchase of goods. At least 25% of the housing will be targeted to households with incomes below $35,000 and another 25% will be targeted to middle-income Vermonters earning $55,000-$83,000 annually (for 4-person households). The balance of the funds will be awarded to projects based on community needs, applications received and the availability of resources for leverage.
“Every night, our shelter, just like shelters across the state, is full of people who need and deserve a home,” said Sara Kobylenski, Executive Director of the Upper Valley Haven, based in White River Junction. “We have allowed ourselves to slide into an alarming housing deficit, and the most vulnerable people in our communities are suffering for it. The housing bond is a timely investment that will improve the lives of many Vermonters.”
“Housing construction is critical piece of our economic engine, and this proposal promises to create hundreds of good paying jobs. It’s also vital to employers who say time and time again how hard it is for their employees or prospective employees to find adequate, affordable housing,” said Tom Torti, President and CEO of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce and board member of the Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS).
In collaboration with the Department of Housing and Community Development, VHCB is gathering input on the highest priority housing needs and potential projects in regional meetings across the state. VHCB will be accepting applications and funding developments for the construction and rehabilitation of rental housing and single-family homes with an emphasis on creating new homes.
The revenue bond will be issued by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency. It is expected to yield $33-34 million in proceeds and will be paid by a $2.5 million in annual revenue from the property transfer tax over 20 years, through 2039.
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Sources: The Vermont Futures Project of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, January 2017; Roadmap to End Homelessness, The Corporation for Supportive Housing, December 2016; Vermont’s Statewide Housing Needs Assessment by Bowen National Research, 2014
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VHCB makes loans and grants for the creation of affordable housing and the conservation of agricultural and recreational lands, forest land, natural areas and historic properties. www.vhcb.org
Read this synopsis of the Housing Revenue Bond Initiative.
Read more about the Governor’s budget and the housing bond from the Burlington Free Press.
THE DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEW AMERICANS TO CHITTENDEN COUNTY, VERMONT
CHAMPLAIN VALLEY OFFICE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (CVOEO) RELEASES STUDY SHOWING “THE DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEW AMERICANS TO CHITTENDEN COUNTY, VERMONT”
From CVOEO Press Release, June 12, 2017
Sudershan Adhikari, a Nepalese refugee used to teach math and science before coming to the United States. He says Vermont didn’t give him a hand out so much as an opportunity, for which he is grateful.
Photo Credit: Nina Keck / Vermont Public Radio.
New Americans contribute significantly to Chittenden County’s housing values, GDP, and job market according to a new report released by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO). The release of this report will be announced by Ali Dieng, CVOEO board member, with Jan Demers, CVOEO Executive Director, and Alex Duchac, author of the study, will both speak.
Produced for CVOEO by Alex Duchac, this report will give the first detailed look at how immigrants impact Vermont’s largest county. The report documents the wide range of benefits provided by New Americans in Chittenden County. Among the significant discoveries included in the report are that, since 2009, New Americans have increased home values by $25M, they have added over $712M to the GDP of Chittenden County, and they have saved more than 270 Vermont manufacturing jobs.
The complete report, detailing many positive impacts, can be viewed > HERE.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT EVENT: WHEN: 3:00 pm, June 15, 2017 WHERE:Flynn Center for the Performing Arts(just prior to Parent University Graduation at 3:30) CONTACT: Joan White, Development Director CVOEO. joanwhite@cvoeo.org; 802-862-2771 ext.744
Refugees benefit our Country: Let’s build welcoming inclusive communities
Even as Governors of some states are declaring their unfounded and fearful opposition to the resettlement of refugees from Syria in their states, Vermont continues to be welcoming, not only to Syrian refugees but for many others fleeing war, persecution and political or religious oppression. That is as it should be, not only for humanitarian reasons but because it is good for the nation, the states, communities and the world.
For more than twenty five years, the United States has offered assistance to refugees through the U.S office of refugee resettlement. Burlington, Vermont is one of the designated refugee resettlement communities. In recent years the number of refugees and immigrants coming from Africa, East and Central Asia to Vermont has significantly increased. Every year the U.S. Congress decides the number of refugees that will be admitted into the U.S. during the fiscal year. In 2014, the U.S government admitted a total of 58,238 refugees into the U.S and approximately 50% of the 58,238 or 29,219 admitted to the U.S fell below 20 years of age.
Process
Once refugees have been approved for admission to the U.S., refugee resettlement agencies (Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP) for the state of Vermont) initially helps to resettle the new refugees including securing housing for them, and providing basic assistance with community orientation, medical screening, employment search services, English language instruction for those coming from non-English speaking countries as well as school orientation to the New Americans.
Life has not been easy for these New Americans. The International Rescue Committee explains that numbers of refugee families have survived traumatic life events including years of political conflict, exposure to war-related violence and deprivation, and chaos in refugee camps. Potential risk factors encountered by refugee children and youth include separation from family members, lack of access to education and health care, recruitment into armed forces, sexual exploitation, the loss of home, and exposure to war-related trauma.
Additionally, refugee youth in the U.S. face further challenges such as new language acquisition, social isolation and alienation, social adjustment with peers, negative peer pressure, grief and bereavement, discrimination, cultural misunderstanding, and adjustment to a new educational system. According to the International Rescue Committee, “Associated psychosocial stress can hinder refugee children’s ability to learn English, perform adequately in school, and develop peer support networks”. Because of these challenges faced by New Americans, our efforts to create welcoming communities are all the more important.
Economic and cultural benefits to our state
Despite the challenges that New Americans have to overcome, they have proven to be outstanding achievers in educational advancement and demonstrate a strong work ethic. They are highly motivated to advance themselves and to contribute to their new communities in a positive way. In other words they are a plus to our communities not a negative.
In Vermont we should keep in mind that we are losing population, especially younger people; the state has a declining population which is growing older and at the same time it has the 4th lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.6 percent. So, many local companies are tapping into the refugee labor pool. Refugees contribute much to the workforce. At the same time, although this is foremost a humanitarian gesture, admitting more refugees can also be a boon for businesses and local economies, particularly in smaller states with labor shortages. There is an interesting recent article to read from PRI about “Vermont businesses” that focuses on a Burlington industry example in particular. New Americans are also market consumers for our local businesses and tax payers – both income taxes and sales taxes – as well as property tax payers as they begin to own real property.
Given both the benefits to our communities and to the refugees themselves of having open welcoming and inclusive communities, we need to continue to welcome and embrace the diversity and economic dynamism that New Americans bring for the good of all concerned.
The economic damper
If a crisis isn’t mentioned in a presidential debate (as the national housing crisis was not, in either of the televised colloquies over the past week), does that mean it doesn’t exist?
Of course not. Whether the candidates are willing to discuss it or not, the affordable housing shortage remains a damper on economic vitality and job creation. Burlington’s latest housing market analysis (July 31) gets to this point right in the first paragraph:
“Burlington’s housing market is marked by an imbalance between supply and demand. … The rental housing imbalance translates into high housing costs (relative to income) and lower quality rental housing stock. … An imbalanced rental housing market also impedes economic growth since employers have trouble recruiting and retaining their workforce.”
The same can be said for many other communities in Vermont and beyond, as seen in these news bulletins from the last few days:
- Toyota Financial Services decided to pull out of Los Angeles and move to Plano, Texas, in part because of LA’s high housing costs and rent burdens.
- Well up the coast, in northwest Oregon, the lack of affordable housing “threatens the viability” of major cheese company that is subsidizing a housing task force in a county, beset by negligible development.
- In Key West, the Naval Air Station has trouble retaining civilian employees because of high housing costs. About half the base’s firefighter recruits wind up leaving after a few months’ training because they can’t afford to live there, according to the chief.
- In Travers City, Mich., the housing shortage repels new workers, in a kind of vicious cycle.
“Builders can’t construct housing because they lack works and workers won’t relocate to the area because they can’t find housing,” The Traverse-City Record-Eagle laments. - Colorado, the rental market is so tight in some ski towns that some workers are living in their cars or in temporary shelters. Several hundred Vail Resort workers recently confronted another kind of indignity: they were informed that they’d have to share rooms in the employer’s housing complexes.
