VHFA renews push for $30M to expand middle‑income homeownership and rental programs

Maura Collins, executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, told the House Housing and General Committee on Feb. 21 that the agency is asking the Legislature to include $15 million for a middle‑income homeownership program and $15 million for a middle‑income rental program in the committee bill — $30 million combined — to revive and expand programs the agency has run in recent years.

The request builds on earlier funding that VHFA used to support 125 modest starter homes with $24 million for homeownership and $10 million for a middle‑income rental pilot. Collins said the governor included the two $15 million requests in his budget and asked the committee to fund them in the bill under consideration.

The programs are designed to fill a gap between deeply subsidized affordable housing and unsubsidized market housing. Collins said VHFA lends subordinate financing — typically up to about 35% of a project’s capital stack — to lower developers’ borrowing costs and thereby reduce rents or sales prices for households who do not qualify for traditional low‑income programs but still need assistance. “The governor put us in for $15,000,000 for 2 different programs, so 30,000,000 total,” Collins said.

Why it matters: employers and builders described the local effects of the shortage. Laura Lee Fester, executive director of the Northeast Kingdom Chamber of Commerce, told the committee that workforce shortages across the region are often caused by an inability to find housing for people hired to fill jobs. “Workforce is the biggest challenge,” Fester said, describing…