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House General amendments to S.328 add HOA resource, service‑supported housing council and modular housing pilot
Summary
Legislative counsel walked the committee through proposed House General amendments to S.328, adding requirements for a secretary of state common‑interest community resource, an ongoing service‑supported housing advisory council, an expanded treasurer credit facility with a modular housing carve‑out, and several reporting and pilot program requirements; members requested follow‑up fiscal and legal reports.
Cameron Wood, office of legislative counsel, presented draft 4.2 of S.328, a housing package that combines provisions from the House and Senate housing bills. Wood said the House General committee had taken parts of both bills and inserted new reporting and pilot program language.
Wood described a new requirement that the secretary of state's office ‘‘provide on its website or otherwise distribute to the public information about Vermont's common interest communities’’ (HOAs) and said the committee pulled proposed limits on leasing, ADUs and in‑home childcare into an office report to analyze legal and financing implications before imposing statutory limits.
The amendment establishes a service‑supported housing advisory council to live within the Department of Aging and Independent Living and to coordinate housing and Medicaid‑funded developmental disability services, with monthly meetings and an annual report due to the legislature. The House iterations also increase the state treasurer's credit facility from 10% to 12.5%, with a 1% carve‑out for off‑site modular housing purchases; an off‑site construction accelerator pilot through ACCD would study bulk purchasing and building codes that incorporate visible and adaptable accessibility standards.
Wood explained other adjustments: clarifications allowing the Vermont Economic Development Authority to participate in financing multiunit housing in coordination with the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, a technical amendment to DHIP to allow upfront reimbursement funding, and a requirement that DHCD report on institutional real estate investor activity and what other states have done to limit corporate purchases of single‑ and two‑family homes.
The committee heard a Joint Fiscal Office summary that increasing the treasurer's credit facility would generate foregone interest income (the JFO official cited up to about $600,000 in future fiscal years) and that the expansion would make roughly $30 million available for lending through the program. Wood also described a proposed reallocation of an existing BHCB appropriation (cited in discussion as $303.9 million of authority) to support additional projects, including supportive housing for people receiving Medicaid‑funded developmental disability services.
Committee members asked for more details about secretary of state capacity for the HOA resource, whether the report will address short‑term rentals, the exact status of appropriations and interest handling, and the fiscal office said it would supply further analysis. The committee agreed to resume consideration of S.328 the next day and did not take final action.
