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Windham & Windsor Housing Trust urges state funding, appeals reform as homelessness rises
Summary
The Windham & Windsor Housing Trust told the House General & Housing Committee that homelessness and addiction trends have worsened since the pandemic; it asked for full statutory funding for VHCB, expanded support services, shelter capacity, regulatory reform to limit costly appeals and an extension of the landlord-relief program.
Elizabeth Bridgewater, executive director of the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, briefed the House General & Housing Committee on local housing trends on Jan. 23, 2025, saying the region needs both capital and human services to respond to rising homelessness and substance-use impacts.
Bridgewater told the committee the trust’s portfolio and recent development pipeline illustrate both capacity and strain: about 900 permanently affordable apartments across Windham and Windsor counties, 113 new units in the pipeline (25 expected this summer), three owned mobile-home parks with 42 lots, and 145 shared-equity homes. She also said the trust has helped educate about 650 homebuyers in the last five years, provided counseling for roughly 1,200 people and supported 229 new homebuyers.
Bridgewater said Windham County shows an outsized rise in people experiencing homelessness compared with other Vermont counties. She said the trust’s internal strategic planning and point-in-time counts show an increase in the unhoused population since 2020 and warned the county has been “impacted…
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