[{"_1":2,"_111":-5,"_112":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,75,87,99],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":56,"_74":56},"mediaId",6094373,"mediaKeyId","2844394-4267b4c80275ab655abecbe0f8961dbd","parentId",2844394,"title","House and Senate housing bills largely overlap, committee leaders say; appeals and permitting remain sticking points","audioSeconds",2211,"startMs",3749280,"endMs",5961025,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=2844394-4267b4c80275ab655abecbe0f8961dbd&start=3749&end=5961","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2844394-4267b4c80275ab655abecbe0f8961dbd/thumbnail_3749280.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6094373/Vermont/House-and-Senate-housing-bills-largely-overlap-committee-leaders-say-appeals-and-permitting-remain-sticking-points","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6094373-99895ccb4c2b4388d7b62ad1f7fb5134/orig.mp4?Expires=1770442682&Signature=C1aIiieZXjHayoXPqmupaQhLnZCQxZ7VCzfCu0KI6m2Y-RF30Umhphn-QhcTGBZaRlNPTRV8W~2NURGPwgB33BfV8vokwisqWiahSntXzjsW8L9N5cnEDvwr~zYDfoHcfR3JFyZza4BTF7Gq1LQWL3N6hr4ryjJDOCgJJivFyyvV61dm42XrhIOwhQFituHYuFtHzb-SIbqEBGWPwu5aYwzQB2-2QYBzFsBtQ6ldjJFA4YEyDaqiBZaXplpPAACQc-aldBFGS4raSH1sJmTkxcj9vtI9Rf06Zgw0Z0GJj-z1j8yj3IBX-plhr38hdprbDCG2QHFxA9suYv7NU1vEkA__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","","date","2025-04-02T08:09:13.477Z","article","Senate and House committee leaders told the Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee that the two chambers’ housing bills share many common provisions but that significant differences remain around renter data, municipal appeals and environmental permitting.

Mark Mahoney, chair of the House Committee on General, Housing and related matters, presented a side-by-side comparison and said the bills “are not like this; they’re like this” — meaning they overlap in many places while differing in others. He described a compromise for the Vermont Housing Improvement Program (VHIP) funding: a 30% minimum allocation to the shorter (five‑year) affordability tier to ensure resources reach people experiencing homelessness while the remainder funds longer-term preservation.

Mahoney and senators discussed proposals on rental data and renter registries. The House approach relies on landlord certificates used for administering renter tax credits and municipal property appraisal data to create an aggregated dataset; that approach avoids a public, unit-level municipal registry. The House said it intends aggregated data sharing with state housing agencies rather than a public registry. Committee members expressed interest in municipal rental registries for larger municipalities but cautioned against politicized or hard-to-administer public registries.

Both chambers included proposals on bond-bank financing, off-site modular construction studies and universal design reporting in some form. Mahoney said the two bills differ on a few items that should be reconciled in a joint process; legislative staff provided a “2.2 as passed” side-by-side to committee members for follow-up.

A central policy dispute addressed the municipal appeals process. Mahoney described narrowing who can appeal land-use decisions: instead of a broadly defined “anyone else” class of appellants, the bill ties standing to whether the appellant is an “aggrieved person” with a specific, demonstrated connection to the harm alleged (for example, direct property damage or degradation). He argued this approach is intended to reduce speculative appeals while preserving legal challenge access for parties who can show direct harm. Committee members acknowledged this is a start and discussed further reforms, including moving permitting focus to front-end planning rather than sequential permit-by-permit review and rethinking “de novo” appeals that duplicate planning-record hearings.

Senators and House members also discussed streamlining ANR (Agency of Natural Resources) and other state permit appeals, phasing project starts during appeals to preserve financing certainty, and the need to integrate municipal rental data with VHFA’s records and other registries where available. Legislative council staff confirmed the committee received a side-by-side showing as-passed versions and that a separate landlord-tenant and eviction-reporting study remains unfinished and may require further committee work.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","Senate Economic Development - 2025-04-01-10:00 AM","oneSentenceSummary","House and Senate committee leaders compared their housing bills and identified common ground on VHIP, ADUs and affordability tools but noted unresolved disputes over renter data, municipal appeal standing, and streamlining environmental and ANR permitting.","taxTitle","Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs, SENATE, Committees, Legislative , Vermont","taxId",37662,"location","Vermont","headline","shortSummary",{"_33":76,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":77,"_41":78,"_43":79,"_45":80,"_47":81,"_49":82,"_51":83,"_53":84,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":85,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":86,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":56,"_74":56},6094377,"Winooski student describes crowded housing, language barriers and barriers to homeownership for immigrant families",197,2819005,3016955,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2844394-4267b4c80275ab655abecbe0f8961dbd&start=2819&end=3016","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2844394-4267b4c80275ab655abecbe0f8961dbd/thumbnail_2819005.jpg","/articles/6094377/Vermont/Winooski-student-describes-crowded-housing-language-barriers-and-barriers-to-homeownership-for-immigrant-families","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6094377-32d96fa26dd47cc2fb632cee5131f9f8/orig.mp4?Expires=1770442682&Signature=BMTxBabc3tQCO5aNCGZO88byJSiYR53EoLQgisKXIC-1M3oF-XNSpHDDTZHMXR6X8MxJVXA0M0qU7EaL9d6a1lvwEeHVrBZAH1umApPck5dfXwyqKBakamtMVVu4wJyo5IGuRxMWVSNuMZ9ECipOoZbu2u8NJlFDEdGNYj81n~VVg8Y5HmYvhnzh7opPpTgoW063xkoexxnexRB2fvIzfQGokZAQH~hhW1Pmv04jj2vC6NUCMCUqgLEXN58x05fqauQJeOHUPgkTxdQsbvP9JX4GH6fhMise2wg7AslH~Ytzegu8evP6qFwbhKk6wYD-WgHAVJeAnkUw11wltnf45Q__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","A Winooski High School student described living through the pandemic in a crowded three-bedroom apartment with 11 family members, telling the Senate committee that her family faced unsafe, stressful conditions and repeated rent increases that forced parents to take multiple jobs.

The student, Mappenzie (last name not provided), said her family immigrated from Zambia in March 2020 and initially relied on an assigned case manager and temporary supports. She told the committee that limited ongoing language services and difficulty communicating with landlords made resolving housing problems harder and sometimes led families to pay duplicate rent charges out of fear of eviction.

Mappenzie said the family later moved to a better apartment in 2023 but continues to face unaffordable rent. She said the scale of work parents must do to afford housing affects family life and children’s school performance. Committee members noted that refugee resettlement often includes an initial case manager and that sustained navigation or language supports may be needed beyond the early settlement period.

Committee members encouraged the student and classmates to share a capstone project on first-time homebuyer education; the student said the project is due in June. A Winooski teacher, Annie Snyder, also testified that unstable housing harms students’ ability to learn and that the district has many large families for whom standard three-bedroom units are inadequate.","A Winooski High School student testified to the committee about the difficulties her large immigrant family experienced in crowded housing during the pandemic, language barriers with landlords and the difficulty of saving for a home in Vermont.",{"_33":88,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":89,"_41":90,"_43":91,"_45":92,"_47":93,"_49":94,"_51":95,"_53":96,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":97,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":98,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":56,"_74":56},6094382,"Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity urges stronger landlord education, tenant outreach",684,1796585,2481505,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2844394-4267b4c80275ab655abecbe0f8961dbd&start=1796&end=2481","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2844394-4267b4c80275ab655abecbe0f8961dbd/thumbnail_1796585.jpg","/articles/6094382/Vermont/Champlain-Valley-Office-of-Economic-Opportunity-urges-stronger-landlord-education-tenant-outreach","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6094382-5587e8959e283e40c7f15756699912c9/orig.mp4?Expires=1770442682&Signature=hvHsMaApx6gq-J4i4ms3QQiq7ukd~EJqlc5SGDsiDWUlSbtN0El0p5VwvwVh-VVYfwQ6UiUD22j3D4C1kqn2jPIDYQAmepWP38qPDkhJXZNN25hneYt50pmVFH6l7yZo7n-Cs2Bo1Nwcr2kD5omWH6vNkBeZJDvjQMji3uw2ZQmfITm4Vv1fXZIifIMvl-Ybxq~CnIlFCUc~Y30o6UnA9xz1lrW-Drp-81WC3lpsHalIUtl1HxpC8n0HR6hxX7ldfvvrw44IbCnUl10-agTf3oou0nXy3~cQpVgsk4tYLoOgTMTWRvkUBCorNJMbp4QOMBz-xhfBZBeGe5dbVAJxDw__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) told the Senate committee that education and outreach are key to reducing housing discrimination and that the agency’s Fair Housing Project fields thousands of housing-related contacts annually.

Kalia (last name not provided), Fair Housing Project education and outreach coordinator at CVOEO, said the agency is one of five community action agencies in Vermont and serves about 10,000 households and 20,000 individuals annually across its northern service region. CVOEO operates a Vermont tenants hotline and a statewide Fair Housing Project that provides consultations, sample forms for reasonable-accommodation requests and referrals to enforcement partners including the Vermont Human Rights Commission and Vermont Legal Aid.

Kalia said most fair-housing inquiries concern disability, race or family status, mirroring national trends. She described direct assistance the project provides: workshops for housing providers, free trainings for providers that receive VHIP grant money, on-demand training modules, and one-on-one consultations to help tenants prepare accommodation requests or file complaints.

CVOEO recommended several policy steps to the committee, including requiring fair-housing education when state funds support private housing development, explicitly including vulnerable groups in protected-class lists used for policy design, reducing barriers to perpetually affordable housing, and funding programs that support renters and first-time buyers. Kalia cautioned that the federal “Affirmatively Further Fair Housing” (AFFH) provision has been terminated by HUD and urged continued state-level attention.

Committee members and CVOEO discussed reasonable accommodations and modifications, including the standards for whether a landlord or a public-funded housing provider must pay for unit modifications (for example, converting a tub to a walk-in shower). CVOEO noted that modifications are assessed case-by-case; units funded through government programs may have different obligations than wholly private units.

Kalia also described CVOEO’s online and in-person education offerings for housing providers and tenants and encouraged continued outreach in light of a tight rental market and rising reports of discrimination.","CVOEO’s Fair Housing Project described counseling, training and a tenants’ hotline that counsel vulnerable Vermonters, and recommended requiring fair-housing education for providers receiving state funds and removing barriers to affordable housing development.",{"_33":100,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":101,"_41":102,"_43":103,"_45":104,"_47":105,"_49":106,"_51":107,"_53":108,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":109,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":110,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":56,"_74":56},6094387,"Vermont Human Rights Commission reports rising fair-housing caseload and limited staff resources",1644,82590,1726612,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2844394-4267b4c80275ab655abecbe0f8961dbd&start=82&end=1726","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2844394-4267b4c80275ab655abecbe0f8961dbd/thumbnail_82590.jpg","/articles/6094387/Vermont/Vermont-Human-Rights-Commission-reports-rising-fair-housing-caseload-and-limited-staff-resources","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6094387-ea559b0aff0cae82b783bc0db2f9e5c6/orig.mp4?Expires=1770442682&Signature=ijaBY1rJjxaG6HSDaQV3REWFeJsG3wYUBas9crTqlRFM-5UAINDndpKYDs8ehuCeycvq2LRpIWKsFbNNNSBi4bN~uEakH07TTaqCvqRefLMQlZvqhQsApDeh~zb2-pjvtkDWmfq0VuSjBwegY4ugD8IyIXUX3CchXSqDSNGUdOLgkggN4d7R2a9EjTFONUMwxZqzmsPR5ehoNiPrSofOHCWlHje9gD0dPEKKexaqhKJ10VVCqkLVIcltbVvuvsJGN7Y5cgxYqIHtcmdj-HodW3v2qIkkvgjBfAPqos5Zhm-dZofpWoZYY3D3ykBBKbCHLH2v9AISfCgp8rTaAUeMiw__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","The Vermont Human Rights Commission told the Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee on April 1 that fair-housing complaints and enforcement actions have increased while the agency remains thinly staffed.

The commission’s executive director and general counsel, Vik Hartman, said the commission has seven employees and three statewide investigators and has logged 97 new fair-housing intakes so far in the current fiscal year. Hartman said the commission handled 16 commission determinations in fiscal 2024, finding reasonable grounds in seven cases, and currently has 48 open housing cases and 11 cases in litigation.

The commission “promote[s] full civil and human rights in Vermont,” Hartman said, describing the office’s work to investigate complaints, mediate where possible and litigate when conciliation fails. Hartman said investigators conduct recorded, live interviews, gather documents and produce investigative reports that commissioners review before making reasonable-grounds determinations.

Hartman told the committee the commission often brings cases involving landlords, owners and property managers and that many housing complaints involve requests for reasonable accommodations by people with disabilities, disparate treatment based on race or color, harassment creating a hostile housing environment, retaliation after a complaint, and refusals to rent to people receiving public assistance. Hartman cited “section 4503 of Title 9” when outlining Vermont’s statutory protected categories.

Hartman also warned of potential federal funding and processing changes tied to the commission’s contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He said HUD has signaled it will not process payments for some dual-filed cases involving gender-identity claims and that cuts at HUD’s Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office could reduce the staff who process payments; the commission counts dual-file payments as roughly 10% of its budget. Hartman said the commission budgeted conservatively for fiscal year 2026 but could see a shortfall if HUD’s contract terms change.

The commission has added a full-time litigator position in the last two years; Hartman said the office’s litigation docket quickly filled once that capacity existed. He described one recent Supreme Court win against the town of St. Johnsbury that was remanded to Superior Court and said the office is working to develop state case law under Vermont’s fair-housing statute.

Hartman said the office lacks a dedicated intake specialist and that he has been answering calls since last summer; the commission has requested a funded intake position in the executive budget and, Hartman said, the House’s current budget includes that position. He described the office’s intake triage: of 97 new fair-housing intakes this fiscal year, 17 became complaints, 12 are under investigation and others remain pending draft or litigation.

Hartman urged the committee to emphasize education for landlords and housing providers, noting that some violations (for example, refusing housing to someone because they receive public assistance) remain common because landlords are unaware of state protections.

He closed by urging continued state-level enforcement as federal posture toward some protected classes changes and said the commission plans to keep building its investigative and litigation capacity to preserve state protections.","The Vermont Human Rights Commission told the Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee it has stepped up enforcement of fair housing claims but faces staff and funding limits, possible HUD contract changes, and a growing number of disability- and public-assistance-related cases.","actionData","errors"]

Article not found

House and Senate housing bills largely overlap, committee leaders say; appeals and permitting remain sticking points

Winooski student describes crowded housing, language barriers and barriers to homeownership for immigrant families

Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity urges stronger landlord education, tenant outreach

Vermont Human Rights Commission reports rising fair-housing caseload and limited staff resources