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Vermont housing advocates warn HUD funding and guidance changes are curbing fair-housing enforcement
Summary
At a joint legislative session marking Fair Housing Month, state advocates and the Vermont Human Rights Commission said recent HUD guidance and funding shifts are limiting enforcement and outreach, leaving some complaints unresolved and costing the HRC roughly $187,000 in expected federal payments.
At a joint session of the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs committee and the House General on April 1, Vermont housing advocates and the executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission warned that recent U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development changes are constraining the state’s ability to enforce fair-housing protections and to fund education outreach.
Vic Hartman, executive director and general counsel of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, told legislators the commission fields daily inquiries about possible housing discrimination and has limited capacity to investigate every case. “We receive at least one call or email about housing discrimination every single day,” Hartman said. He described the office’s intake and triage process, noting the agency has nine staff, including four staff-attorney investigators, and that only a fraction of inquiries become full investigations.
Hartman provided caseload figures for the current fiscal year: the commission opened about 70 inquiry files, held 57 intake…
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