Affordable-housing developers urge restoration of VHCB funding as project pipeline faces pause

Angie Harbin, executive director of Downstreet Housing and Community Development, and Andrew Winter, executive director of Twin Pines Housing Trust, told the House Committee on General & Housing on Jan. 13 that ongoing state funding and federal tax-credit financing are essential to building permanently affordable housing across central and northern Vermont.

Harbin said Downstreet operates about 450 apartment homes and 85 manufactured-housing lots across Orange, Washington and Lamoille counties and currently has 69 perpetually affordable units under construction representing roughly a $38,000,000 investment. She said roughly one quarter of that recent project financing came from Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) state funds and that those state funds are leveraged to access federal dollars. “We have a crisis level shortage of housing in Vermont, and the only way to address this is to build more housing,” Harbin said.

The organization warned the committee that an anticipated redirection of $30,000,000 in ARPA “sweeps” dollars to VHCB did not materialize late last year, creating a potential pause in VHCB-funded activity. Harbin said that pause threatens projects in predevelopment and could slow…