[S]OUTH BURLINGTON — A coalition of Chittenden County housing groups said they exceeded their target for new homes in the first year of a five year campaign, but fell short of their goal for affordability.
The Building Homes Together campaign was launched last year by the Champlain Housing Trust, Housing Vermont and the Chittenden County Regional Planning Coalition.
They set a target for the county of having 3,500 new homes built over five years, with 20 percent of those homes selling or renting at prices affordable to low-income residents.
At a news conference Wednesday, housing leaders said there were 916 new Chittenden County homes built in 2016, well above the 700 homes that was their target. However, only 69 — or 7.5 percent — meet their definition for affordable, and that’s well below the 20 percent goal.
The group defines affordability as spending no more than 30 percent of household income on housing, and sets the bar for low-income renters at $39,600 for a two-person household.
The initiative was launched in part to address the “chronically low” vacancy rate in Vermont’s most populous county, which was 2.5 percent in the first half of 2017, or “effectively zero” for many low-income residents, according to Brenda Torpy, CEO of the Champlain Housing Trust.
The Champlain Housing Trust receives 10 applications for each of its 1,500 affordable rentals in the county, Torpy said. A healthy vacancy rate in a real estate market is 4 percent to 5 percent.
Wages aren’t keeping pace with housing costs, Torpy said, and many workers are being priced out of Chittenden County.
There is some reason for optimism, she said, pointing to a $35 million housing bond approved by the state, which will pay for grants to housing projects around the state over the next three years.
Nancy Owens, president of Housing Vermont, said the legislation authorizing the bond requires grantees to include a certain percentage of affordable housing in new projects.
Gov. Phil Scott, who championed the housing bond, was on hand for Wednesday’s news conference. Scott said the $35 million bond will go a long way toward his administration’s goals of making the state more affordable and growing its economy.
“I think this $35 million will leverage other money as well,” Scott said, ultimately leading to a total of $100 million in new housing starts.
Housing groups and developers said funding sources have to be “stacked” in order to make affordable housing units viable.
An example of this kind of “stacked” funding is the Allard Square project that the development firm Cathedral Square is planning to build on Market Street where Wednesday’s news conference was held. The senior housing development will include 39 one- and two-bedroom apartments, and will include a mix of affordable rents. The $10.6 million project drew funding from 10 different sources, according to Cathedral Square.
Erhard Mahnke, with the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, said Vermont’s housing bond is even more crucial because of a decline in federal money for low-income housing projects.
Jen Hollar, of the Vermont Housing Conservation Board, said federal housing resources have dropped by 25 percent since 2010.
