Vermont housing board urges code enforcement and sustained incentives as costs rise, backs H.181 working group extension

Gus Sewell, executive director of the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, told the House Committee on Environment & Energy on April 25 that the agency’s long-term work on affordable housing, conservation and flood resilience depends on stronger enforcement of building and energy codes and continued, targeted incentives to cover rising costs.

The board recommended extending the H.181 working group and asked the state to establish a method to attribute energy savings to code compliance and to report greenhouse-gas reductions tied to code enforcement, Sewell said. He and VHCB staff highlighted recent projects and rising development costs as reasons the state should secure measurable compliance and maintain funding support.

Sewell said VHCB is a “multipurpose, multientity organized as a quasi‑public entity” that the Legislature funds to invest in housing and conservation across Vermont and that its projects must meet building and energy codes. “We support extending the working‑group extension,” Sewell said, adding that the board wants the Department to “establish a procedure for attributing energy savings to building code compliance.”

Why it matters: Committee members pressed VHCB staff on how code standards, energy incentives and construction choices affect the affordability and feasibility of new housing. VHCB officials said incentives above code have shrunk…