Land Access and Opportunity Board outlines programs, seeks funding from cannabis excise tax

The Land Access and Opportunity Board (LAOB) told the House Committee on General & Housing on Jan. 21 that it has spent its first year building community relationships and capacity and is seeking state funding to scale direct services, including down-payment and land-access assistance.

"We believe foundationally that when those who are most marginalized do better, we all do better," Orneta Mata Figueroa, Director of Advocacy and Community Engagement for the Land Access and Opportunity Board, said in the presentation to the committee. The board described itself as an independent state body created in 2022 to address disparities in homeownership for historically and systematically marginalized Vermonters.

The LAOB described three primary program areas: community engagement and advisory work that feeds state policymaking, capacity building to help communities access grants and other resources, and direct investments such as grants and technical assistance for emerging developers. Jean Hamilton, Director of Program Development for the LAOB, told the committee that the board "is an independent state board, meaning that we are a state body that does not operate within any agency," and emphasized the board’s role in advising agencies and serving as a conduit for community-led solutions.

Staff described specific initiatives the board is preparing to launch this spring: a housing coaches program that would place five coaches around the state to help individuals navigate pathways to stable rental housing or homeownership, and a BIPOC developer technical-assistance program meant to expand the pool of local developers. The board also described plans to make down-payment assistance grants available for land acquisition as well as home purchase, and to support community-led affordable housing projects.

LAOB staff said the board has supported or helped write several grant efforts. They said they helped prepare a $13,000,000 grant submission to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for farmworker housing, and that the board is serving as an "anchor organization" to help Vermont applicants access a regional pool of roughly $48,000,000 in available grants for climate relief, housing access, food access, pollution control and lead abatement; those grants range from about $75,000 to $850,000 per award, and the LAOB noted the first deadline in that regional round is Feb. 14.

On budget, the LAOB said a study-group recommendation would allocate 25% of the state’s cannabis excise tax to the LAOB for community reinvestment. Staff presented a projection that 25% of the cannabis excise tax would amount to roughly $5.6 million based on the past fiscal year, plus an existing anchor-organization contract worth $150,000 a year for three years and a $224,000 carryforward; the presenters described a budget plan that would dedicate the majority of those funds to direct services, with a smaller share for operating costs and community engagement.

The presenters said the LAOB has been staffed since January of the prior year and that, so far, two staff support the board; they said the board plans to hire additional support and program staff this year to implement the programs described. Staff framed much of the board’s work as breaking down silos across agencies and building trust so communities can better navigate banking, legal, and programmatic systems related to housing and land access.

Committee members briefly questioned how the LAOB’s proposed funding and programming would relate to existing programs at other entities, including the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) and Champlain Housing Trust. LAOB staff said they intend to work with existing programs to fill gaps rather than duplicate services.

The board listed several legislative priorities it intends to pursue this session, including securing a specific appropriation, seeking changes to board composition via the miscellaneous boards and commissions bill, and monitoring proposals tied to food security and recovery platforms. The presentation concluded without any formal committee action recorded on the record; committee members were reminded that the committee will rank budget priorities for the Appropriations Committee in the coming months.

The committee paused for mandatory training after the presentation, and the hearing was adjourned with notices about the next day’s testimony schedule.