Champlain Housing Trust warns federal cuts could force staff reductions, slow development

Michael Monti, chief executive officer of Champlain Housing Trust, told the House Committee on General and Housing on April 9 that proposed federal funding reductions — including cuts to NeighborWorks funding and housing vouchers — could force the trust to cut staff and limit its ability to develop or support housing across Vermont.

Monti told committee members the NeighborWorks network provides roughly $1,900,000 a year that is distributed to five nonprofit organizations across the state and that those funds are used for both operating and flexible capital activities. "That capacity funds, if that was to disappear, would severely impact many of the organizations within the network," he said.

The committee chair asked Monti to explain who would be affected and how the funds are used. Monti said NeighborWorks dollars are often the flexible capital that can be "first in" to start a project or "last funds in" to close financing, and that the network uses those dollars to support development, home-buyer education, shared-equity homeownership and emergency responses such as flood recovery and COVID-era work. He said the NeighborWorks allocation to Vermont has yielded substantial…