Committee advances H.479 with housing program changes, tenant protections and tax-data provisions

A Senate committee moved H.479 favorably on May 1, 2025, as received from the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee. Committee staff described the draft amendment to H.479 as largely the same as language the Senate passed earlier this year in S.127, with a number of changes the House had proposed incorporated into the current draft.

Cameron Wood, Director of the Office of Legislative Council, told the committee that “the CHIP section is exactly the same as we passed it” and then walked members through the bill’s notable changes. The committee voted to advance H.479 as it was received from the other committee; the clerk and chair recorded the committee action as passing with a tally reported in the meeting as 4–0–3.

Major elements discussed and confirmed in committee:

- Vermont Rental Housing Improvement Program: The draft keeps the five-year forgivable loan option alongside grants rather than eliminating the five-year forgivable loans, restoring an option the Senate earlier proposed to strike. The bill would also revert the ten-year loan repayment terms to a fair-market-rent model that existed prior to last year’s change.

- Minimum set-aside for targeted units: The amendment includes a…