Winooski officials and a slate of local and statewide organizations penned a letter to Vermont legislators and Gov. Phil Scott this week, urging them to prioritize policies that combat the state’s housing crisis and support vulnerable residents who are displaced.
The March 8 letter, which also was signed by Amila Merdzanovic, director of Vermont’s chapter of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, highlighted the eviction of two dozen families — including many refugees with little income — from a Winooski apartment complex. The property’s landlord, Rick Bove, said he plans to renovate the units at 300 Main St. and then sell them at market rate.
City leaders and local housing organizations have voiced concerns that it will be difficult, if not impossible, for these tenants to find new housing in Winooski or the surrounding region, especially since many of them live in large, multigenerational households.
The Winooski apartments were featured in an investigation last fall by Seven Days and Vermont Public Radio, which found that swaths of rental properties owned by Bove and his brother, Mark Bove, were plagued by safety issues and poor maintenance.
“While the situation at 300 Main Street is tragic, we know it is not unique,” officials said in the letter. “Time and again, we have seen landlords renovate units and raise rents, displacing economically disadvantaged families.”
In addition to Merdzanovic, signatories included Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott, school board chair Tori Cleiland and housing authority director Deac Decarreau. Leaders from the Association Of Africans Living In Vermont, the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity and the Champlain Housing Trust also signed onto the note.
They called for requirements to make sure that tenants who are evicted because of renovations get assistance such as options for alternative housing, resources to help cover their moving expenses and temporary aid with paying increased rents.
The letter also calls for a statewide strategy to protect Vermont’s existing affordable housing stock, along with “substantial public investment” in new housing with more than three bedrooms, noting that even two-bedroom units can be difficult to find right now.
It notes that most large housing units are developed by nonprofit housing organizations, which rely on private donations and, notably, government support to make their projects financially viable.
“The open market is not going to support the creation of housing that meets the needs of the families we want to welcome,” officials said in the letter.
The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs advanced a bill Wednesday that would invest millions of dollars in housing and also loosen regulations that prevent more housing from being built.
That includes $20 million in fiscal year 2023 that would go to improve rental housing under Gov. Phil Scott’s Vermont Housing Improvement Program.
