Rep. Mark Mahali lays out housing funding priorities, urges more VHCB and modular-housing support

Representative Mark Mahali, chair of the House Committee on General and Housing, told the House Appropriations Committee on March 11 that his committee's FY26 priorities aim to address multiple, concurrent causes of Vermont's housing shortage and to reduce the price of producing housing.

Mahali said the problem is multifaceted: permitting bottlenecks, infrastructure costs, labor shortages and high construction costs. "She made all of us guess... and then she said, all of them," Mahali said, summarizing testimony from a Vermont Housing Finance Agency witness who described multiple causes of the housing crisis. Mahali added that "it costs well north of $550,000 to produce a housing unit."

Why it matters: Mahali framed the budget requests as attempts to make housing production and purchase financially viable across income bands, from very low-income households through workers who earn modestly above area median income. He said shared-equity and buy-down programs help households move into homeownership while preserving long-term affordability, and public funds often lever private capital at a high ratio.

Major funding requests and program details

- Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB): Mahali said his committee had originally sought $40 million for VHCB but reduced that ask to $25 million; he described the figure as a judgment call and said the committee had not identified a new stable non-general-fund revenue source for VHCB beyond its current base. Committee members and Mahali discussed whether additional VHCB funds should be…