Vermont’s new head of racial equity believes the state needs to confront its “not-in-my-backyard” mentality as part of efforts to improve its poor track record on housing affordability.
“Do we value justice, or do we value comfort?” said Xusana Davis, the executive director of racial equity.
Davis facilitated a conversation on diversity Thursday at a conference aimed at addressing the gap between two powerful forces behind Vermont policy: housing organizations and conservation groups.
The one-day conference, hosted by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, brought together advocates and policymakers to discuss how to build affordable housing while conserving Vermont’s natural beauty.
The VHCB was created in the 1980s during the real estate boom to protect both housing for low-income communities and Vermont’s open space, said Gus Seelig, executive director of VHCB.
“Housing and conservation are two sides to the same issue of land use. Where are you going to build houses? Where are you going to fish, hike, bike and watch birds?” he said. “Access to the outdoors is important to all of us, especially people of modest means who are not going to buy a ski pass.”
Erhard Mahnke from the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, said Vermont had a unique partnership between housing and conservation advocates to its advantage. He’s more concerned about local resistance. That “not-in-my-backyard” philosophy has stalled affordable housing projects, he said.
“We have to demystify what is affordable housing and who lives there,” he said. “These are the people taking care of your children … and serving you at restaurants.”
Tiffany Manuel, president of TheCaseMade, a social justice marketing firm, told the audience her strategies for overcoming negative reception to new housing initiatives.
In a speech at the conference, Manuel said she knew people in the room had been working on housing issues for decades, “holding the door” open against resistance to help good people.
There is growing awareness that “where you live, matters,” she said.
Manuel said the financial crisis in 2009 presented an opportunity to reconsider how the U.S. thinks about housing, but the issue didn’t take hold.
“We have that moment now,” she said, with cities across the country pricing out so many, “and we have to take advantage of that.”
Davis sees the affordable housing issue from a different angle: as part of Vermont’s long history of racial discrimination and marginalization of diverse groups.
Nationally, black and Hispanic households earn less than $60,000 in median income per year, while white non-Hispanic households earn a median of $85,000 per year, Census data shows. Vermont’s households of color appear to have the same disparity, although the state’s small population of nonwhite residents make it harder to analyze.
Though she’s still in the process of evaluating the state’s services to racial minorities, she said housing was an important factor in racial equity because of its history of discrimination and because it impacts so much about a person’s life, including their health.
“It’s simple things like, do you have grab bars in the shower? Do you have lead paint? Pests? Mold?” she said. “And then it’s bigger things like crowding, which research has shown can lead to the spread of disease and even aggression and depression.”
Davis, a recent transplant from New York City’s health department, began at the job in July. She said she loves Vermont’s green space and mountains. But she said we can’t sustain a system where everyone wants 30 acres.
“I have to be super honest and confront that in myself,” she said.
Davis said she was interested to see how different Vermont communities reconcile the desire to protect open space with the need for affordable housing. She pointed to Burlington, which has seen population gains, because the city has a more welcoming approach.
“When we are exclusionary, when we stay small, we’re denying opportunities,” she said. “If we’re land rich and keep it all to ourselves, we’re not going to be able to gain more.”
Jen Hollar, policy director at VHCB, said the conflict between open space and affordable housing in Vermont is “something we think about,” but didn’t create the same sort of battles that it has in other states.
“With our beautiful existing communities, we work on how do we preserve them them while protecting the landscape around them,” she said.
