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 in community housing), and employer-provided housing (employers leasing or operating units, typically for seasonal or tied workers). "We don't want to go back to our history of company towns," Sullivan said, urging careful separation between employer and landlord roles.

Why it matters: Sullivan said housing availability directly affects the state’s economy by limiting the ability of businesses to fill open positions. She described one Chittenden County manufacturer that lost 10 employees — an extended family of new Americans who wanted to buy homes near one another — because they could not find housing and moved to Ohio instead. Sullivan called that outcome "a huge loss for that employer, a huge loss for the community."

Sullivan reviewed existing and recent program tools. She pointed to a Vermont Employer Assisted Housing guide produced by VHFA as a resource for businesses, and described two program examples the Chamber supports:

- Middle Income Homeownership Development Program: Sullivan said the program was designed to reach households that fall above typical income-restricted eligibility; she noted the program “does go up to a 50% of AMI” (area median income) as written in program descriptions the Chamber has worked on with the housing finance agency.

- Rental Revolving Loan Fund (created 2023): Sullivan said this fund targets rental housing and—like the middle-income program—was intended to reach brackets that are squeezed out by the current market and traditional income-restricted programs.

Sullivan argued that production and workforce must be addressed together. She said Vermont currently permits only about 25 housing units a year (as measured by permits taken out, per her presentation) while the state needs far more to meet demand. She also said there are roughly 15,000 construction workers in the state and that the shortfall in production is not simply a financing problem but a labor one: "It's 2 workers per house," she said, illustrating why workforce development and recruitment are critical to scaling production.

The Chamber vice president urged the committee to consider lending gaps but also to pair any lending solutions with workforce strategies, noting 10% of Vermonters aged 16–24 are not in school or work and could be recruited into trades. Sullivan recommended employers and agencies use the VHFA guide and highlighted the need for middle-income bridge programs beyond conventional income-restricted housing.

Sullivan closed by urging the committee to engage employers as partners in solutions and left time for questions. The committee followed with discussion about how lending proposals being considered by the committee could complement workforce initiatives.

Sources: Presentation to the House Committee on Commerce & Economic Development by Megan Sullivan, vice president of government affairs, Vermont Chamber of Commerce, Feb. 26, 2025.