Vermont Chamber urges employer-assisted housing, says state needs roughly 7,500 new homes a year

Megan Sullivan, vice president of government affairs for the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, told the House Committee on Commerce & Economic Development on Feb. 26 that Vermont needs roughly 7,500 new housing units a year to meet demand and that employers are increasingly pressed to help solve the state’s housing shortage.

Sullivan said the housing shortfall is a business problem as well as a social one: employers struggle to recruit and retain workers when suitable housing is not available. "We need to be closer to 7,500 a year to meet the demand," she told committee members, and described instances where employers lost workers because of the housing crunch.

The Chamber official said employers engage on housing in three distinct ways: workforce housing (public- and private-sector development that creates complete, mixed-use neighborhoods), employer-assisted housing (employer benefits such as down-payment or rental assistance and employer investments…