The funding, approved in the annual budget by the Vermont Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Phil Scott, will help the organization continue providing statewide housing navigation, case management, service coordination, technical assistance, appeals assistance and permanent housing support for individuals with disabilities and complex needs, Siegel said.
The state’s signature housing law promised to measure whether Vermont is closing its housing gap. The first report landed in May — and it shows production falling, public money propping up its best recent year, and the one question that matters most still unanswerable in most of the state.
Whether we live in Swanton, Guilford, Pownal, or anywhere in between, Vermonters take pride in our self-sufficiency and resilience. When we see a problem, we fix it, whether it’s a broken fence or a broken economy. The next two years of the Trump administration will almost certainly see Washington punishing so-called “blue states” like Vermont with less federal help than ever. No one is coming to save us, so it’s up to us to invest in ourselves, and our communities.
Act 181 revealed a fundamental inequity in policy from Montpelier—wealthy, urban communities get a choice. Rural or poor communities don’t. Montpelier must fix it.
They have not really changed their minds, only their tactics.
While Vermont’s visible challenges with drug trafficking maybe happening on streets and in parks, what’s happening inside residential apartment buildings is also putting citizens and their neighbors at risk, largely out of sight. These illegal enterprises are surprisingly often operating under tacit protections from State law and the resulting risks are exacerbated by a lengthy court process that takes months to resolve. And this is putting vulnerable Vermonters in harm’s way.
The Northeast Kingdom Collaborative, alongside RuralEdge, Vermont State Housing Authority, and the State of Vermont, invites community members, prospective homebuyers, employers, municipalities, service providers, developers, and funders to attend free in-person home tours and information sessions on Wednesday, May 6.
Former Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger joined lawmakers last Friday to present for Let’s Build Homes, a nonprofit where he now serves as executive chair. He criticized Vermont’s regulatory environment for housing, pointing in particular to a subjective permitting process and to burdensome aspects of Act 181 and Act 250. Ultimately, his message was clear, Vermont is not building enough housing, and reform is needed.
The state has set vital housing targets while lawmakers built a regulatory framework that may make those targets unreachable. The math has never been reconciled — and half the maps don’t yet exist.
How a non-vote exposed the Democrats’ true attitudes regarding the housing crisis.
A family who has lived on their land for 100 years and wants to give their child a piece of that land to build a road and home may not be able to afford these new cost burdens.
Echoes of dystopia: Sanctuary Districts in DS9 and Burlington’s permanent homeless pods
The Vermont political leadership, at the federal, state, and local levels (except for Governor Phil Scott’s administration), has made numerous announcements about how they wish to control residential rental housing in Vermont. They have made it their mission to stigmatize those who are residential rental landlords with comments such as, “they are gouging their tenants, making huge profits while providing minimum services.”
This week, the House Committee on Human Services has heard testimony on H.657, a bill that changes or establishes multiple practices within the Department of Children and Families (DCF), including overseeing a qualified minor’s social security income, defining the proper use of restraints and transportation for minors, restricting the use of solitary confinement on minors, the use of pregnancy calendars or tracking pregnant individuals, and reforming unaccompanied homelessness for minors.
Understanding what actually happened requires looking beyond headlines to examine the mechanisms, money, and competing pressures shaping this decision.
At issue is approximately $11.1 million in General Assistance (GA) emergency housing funds originally appropriated in State Fiscal Year 2025 and carried forward into FY2026. According to testimony and internal communications reviewed by the House Human Services Committee, DCF expected at least a $5.5 million underspend in the GA emergency housing line.
Speakers warned that Act 181 is moving faster than the maps and rules needed to implement it clearly and fairly, creating uncertainty for towns, housing projects, and working landowners across Vermont. The coalition is urging legislative leaders to take up H.730 to extend timelines and prevent further misalignment.
The bill creates a five-tier continuum of care ranging from high-barrier shelters with mandatory case management to permanent supportive housing, including repurposed hotels and motels.
Senator’s proposal would transform one-time purchase surcharge into yearly assessment
Hard facts and market dynamics suggest that increasing hardship for owners can drive independent landlords out of business, ultimately reducing housing availability, flexibility, and affordability—exacerbating the very housing crisis Griffin seeks to address.
Can the state of Vermont impose residency requirements for its welfare programs? This was the topic of debate last week in the House Committee on Human Services when Representative Brenda Steady (R-Milton) asked if fraud could result from the “return home” provisions in H.594.
A surge in homelessness and a 32% construction labor shortage have exposed Vermont’s housing crisis as a shelter emergency. Meanwhile, a transformation in off-site construction has created homes that are often higher quality and more energy efficient than traditional builds—at half the cost. So why do state and local regulations still treat them like the mobile homes of 1970?
Only 3 days of warning given for eviction, under the new proposed bill.
The most discussed feature of H.594 is the Return Home Program, where the state would fund travel and relocation for unhoused individuals who wish to return to a state where they maintain legal reside
House Bill H.545, introduced by Rep. Theresa Wood (D–Washington-Chittenden) and Rep. Alyssa Black (D–Chittenden-24), would shift the power to set immunization recommendations from federal agencies to the Vermont Department of Health. It would require all insurers to cover any immunization recommended by the commissioner with no copayments, coinsurance, or deductibles, and grant immunity from most civil and administrative liability to health professionals who administer those vaccines in accordance with state guidance.
Vermont’s 2020 energy standards focused on basic quality and efficiency. In contrast, the 2024 standards are designed to support the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act.
Registry data reveals a significant disconnect between the perception of local hosts supplementing income and the reality of ownership patterns.
After years of coping with rampant drug use, vandalism, littering, unsanitary conditions, crime and panhandling that downtown business owners say drives away customers, the town selectboard on January 6 resolved – almost – to remove encampments – a policy first proposed three years ago.
As for solutions ….. Sanders called for a more progressive tax system and a significant increase in the construction of affordable housing. In other words, Sanders said Vermont should solve the problem by increasing taxes on the income (and likely other assets) of the upper middle class and wealthy, allowing for the reduction or at least stabilization of property taxes , and building more affordable housing.
As Vermont enters another legislative session, lawmakers are once again proposing housing legislation they believe will protect tenants from eviction and homelessness. While the intent may be laudable, the reality on the ground is far messier — and the consequences are increasingly harmful not only to landlords, but also to responsible tenants and to Vermont’s already strained housing supply.
The most transformative aspect of the newly adopted plan is the authorization of significantly taller buildings along the city’s major corridors.
To fix our housing crisis, Jericho woman says attitudes need to change as much as zoning regulations
How a 24-unit project reveals a statewide crisis in cost, regulation, and taxpayer inefficiency
Colchester is a haven for manufactured housing in pricey Chittenden County
Inside the multi-state fight against Federal funding caps
Because CHIP draws its repayment funds from the education portion of the property tax, it also touches the broader statewide education fund.
“The problem when you talk about housing affordability is an immediate assumption is that the state’s got to spend more money to create affordable housing and low-income housing,” the now-retired economist said. “That’s not the answer because the middle-income people you want to attract to the state aren’t going to be eligible for it.”
Vermont needs to stay off the front page of the WSJ unless, of course, it is a positive story.
Beneath the story of Fairlee’s $170K “miracle” units lies sweat equity, family loans, and a navigation of state and federal bureaucracy that, by the developer’s own account, were nearly ruinous.
A reaction to Scott’s Executive Order on Housing
Auditor’s report shows increase in homeless spending increases homelessness.
As currently written, the plans developed by our ruling class will make the inevitable decrease in our average standard of living even worse.
Currently, a quarter of Vermont renters spend more than 50% of their income on housing costs, which will continue to trend in the wrong direction if action isn’t taken, a Scott spokesperson said.
Alterra Mountain Company recently announced a capital plan of more than $400 million for the 2025-2026 season, a significant and recurring theme is investment in workforce housing.
“What that means for people in the farmworking community is that we’re obligated to stay on jobs where our rights aren’t being respected and we’re being abused, just because the farm is the only place where we’re able to get housing,” a Migrant Justice member said at the event.
This is why affordable housing projects completed or under development in places such as Putney, Bennington, Burlington, and other Vermont cities and towns are costing up to or exceeding $600,000 per unit. In California, the cost is closer to $1 million.
Downstreet Housing & Community Development and the Central Vermont Refugee Action Network (CVRAN) on Wednesday announced the opening of Randall Apartments, a newly renovated building that now provides four permanently affordable homes for New American families.
Spurred by drug abuse, mental illness, and possibly by state housing policies, homelessness has tripped since 2020. Will Trump’s plan work?
Most of a $68 million state and federal grant package announced yesterday will help flood-stricken communities build housing outside of flood-prone areas.
City officials in Montpelier cleared a homeless encampment near the downtown transit center this week, citing mounting safety concerns and violations of local ordinances that prohibit overnight camping in public parks. The action comes just weeks after Vermont’s pandemic-era motel voucher program officially ended, displacing hundreds of vulnerable Vermonters — and sparking renewed debate about homelessness, governance, and community responsibility.
Vermont’s General Assistance (GA) Emergency Housing Program, commonly known as the “hotel/motel program,” remains operational with no termination date, despite confusion among some residents, and cost Vermont taxpayers $33 million dollars last year.
Even before it started, the City of Burlington has pulled the plug on a controversial plan to allow up to a dozen homeless families park overnight on the shores of Lake Champlain.
Failure to extend the program will leave Vermonters living in cars, parks, sidewalks and riverbanks, they said.
Portability will now only be permitted to areas where the Voucher Payment Standards are less than or equal to VSHA’s highest standard.
Department refuses to release even anonymized data about where recipients came from — or if they’re from Vermont at all.
In theory, it’s about moving decision-making closer to the ground. In practice, it’s raising serious questions — from whether local agencies are ready, to whether the state is gambling with programs that are already working.
Three-quarters of that rise in sheltered homelessness occurred in four “sanctuary” areas representing just five percent of the population—New York City, Chicago, Denver, and Massachusetts (primarily suburban Boston).
It looks like a mobile home park. The state says it isn’t. The folks in this Williston neighborhood are frustrated they can’t access the help that classification would afford them.
The report, by the free-enterprise Common Sense Institute, also called into question most of the state’s “housing first” approach, saying it “may not be the best approach to addressing this challenge.”
“So we’re looking at nearly 50% with mental health [needs]… Large numbers, one in five with a developmental disability, nearly one in three with a physical disability. And so that is the type of people that this legislation would impact.”
Businesses suffer as millions spent on Homeless Hotels instead of housing
A new program to replace the state’s current emergency housing programs is up for a vote in the House this morning.
“If we saw this many deaths in any other program, there would be a desire for change,” Samuelson said.
Are progressive policies creating homeless, or attracting them?
Settings that already provide homeless housing might easily welcome 1-5 micro dwelling units in nearby empty parking lots.
From September through December, our homeless fellow Vermonters suffered multiple catastrophic outcomes, including many preventable deaths.
If we wish to have more employees for a healthier business community and want to encourage younger families to move here, we need to offer housing solutions.
To develop housing in Vermont, the hurdles have increased and are much higher, making the housing crisis all the more dire.
Instead of allowing 20 individuals to file an appeal, the new standard would require 20% of a municipality’s residents to participate.
The City has provided incentives, including approx. $4.6M in reduction of future taxes over the first 12 years, and around $750,000 in waived permit fees.
The committee this year has taken extensive testimony on just cause evictions, which would replace the ‘no cause’ eviction currently legal in Vermont. To date no specific legislation has been reviewed.
Originally designed to provide shelter during severe weather, the program’s cost has skyrocketed to tens of millions of dollars annually.
The State of Vermont is looking to start a dedicated fund for school construction, something the state has lacked for decades.
Climate mandates account for $30-$40K additional cost per unit, are chasing away construction workers.
In the Vermont county of Chittenden, where the median listing price is $576,600, a staggering 91.7% of homeowners are considered equity-rich.
Over the decades, Act 250 has grown into a broad regulatory framework that has hindered development while providing questionable benefits.
The new study sets regional housing production targets for 2030 and 2050
It’s clear: Vermonters are calling for thoughtful reforms to keep our state affordable, functional, and equitable for all residents.
The squatters defecated and urinated and started an indoor fire inside the unoccupied house, police say.
This new Board is a reorganization of the Natural Resources Board, the organization responsible for the administration of Act 250, Vermont’s land use and development law.
The draft report recommends legislation to approve just cause eviction, rent control (AKA ‘stablization), a rental registry, tenant right to counsel, and more funding for housing supports.
The $21.8 million project includes converting Newport City’s historic Sacred Heart Convent into 26 mixed-income rental units the high school into 24 condos.
Deputy Mayor Thomas Renner emphasized three goals city leaders are looking at: affordability, multi-bedroom units and putting units up for sale.
The organization alleges that the family shelters championed by the State are much more expensive than the hotel voucher program.
Strong support voiced for the draft Master Plan, despite many remaining questions.
“And, because of our country’s long history of racist and exploitative laws and policies, many of which continue today, Black Vermonters are unhoused at a staggering rate compared to white Vermonters,” the report states.
In terms of population growth, a net 3,000 people moved to the state in 2022, and that’s on top of a net of more than 14,000 people who previously moved here in 2021.
Only a handful of Vermont real estate housing developers could contend with the cost, time, and technical/legal aspects of prosecuting the local/State approvals.
The Blue Sky Estate previously listed for $6,275,000.
Vermont state and local governments lack the cash to continue the Housing First policy for the growing numbers of homeless people.
As the Democratic National Convention opens, Rep. Becca Balint is tweeting her concern for the high cost of housing.
A guide in Plain English!
A motel already in use for homeless housing since the pandemic has been purchased by a non-profit for use as a ‘homeless hotel.’
“Cleaning up contaminated properties and turning them into sites for housing and economic opportunity is key to community revitalization,” said Governor Phil Scott
Tent City, as the encampment was known, sat tucked in a patch of woods behind the downtown train station and Food City grocery store.
“The average Vermont home value is $392,682, up 4.7% over the past year and goes to pending in around 9 days,” -Zillow
Pet-friendly activities, lodging, hotels, restaurants, and cafes, -Vermont has all it all.
The land trust has a program to help people of color make a down payment on their house.
Tier 3 consists of “critical resource areas” where any activity within will more than likely trigger Act 250 jurisdiction and would, by some estimates, cover about 18% of the state’s land mass.
“They have to have a way to build wealth,” Rodgers said. “Home ownership is a way to build equity and wealth which will turn into intergenerational wealth. Without that, people are just working like dogs and they’re handing all their money over to some business or business owner.
