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At a joint session of the House General and Housing Committee and the Senate Committee on Economic development, housing, and general affairs, nonprofit housing providers and advocates warned that recent and potential federal funding changes — including cuts to project-based Section 8 vouchers, uncertainty from a federal shutdown, tariff-driven cost volatility, and federal program shifts — threaten both the financing pipeline for new affordable housing and the day-to-day operations of existing affordable housing in Vermont. Witnesses including Evernorth, Champlain Housing Trust, Downstreet Housing, and Let's Build Homes described development gaps, concrete financing examples, tenant impacts (food insecurity and loss of SNAP), and recommended state action such as using CHIP guidelines, anchoring VHIP, and creating state funding tools to replace lost federal leverage.
