U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., visited Zephyr Place, a new affordable housing complex in Williston on Wednesday, in her first public appearance in Vermont since being sworn into office.
Back from Washington, D.C., Balint reiterated a pledge to make housing a priority. “I will be completely focused on doing everything I can around this,” she said.
She also urged Vermonters facing housing challenges to reach out to their local legislators. The state has many tools to help, Balint said, mentioning “incredible housing organizations” and “creative solutions” to help residents build accessory dwelling units or in-law apartments, for example.
“In Vermont you have an opportunity to really have your voice heard in a way that you don’t in larger states I feel. Use those resources,” she said.
Balint visited new Zephyr Place resident Michelle Lucas at the former 99-room hotel, which Champlain Housing Trust acquired and converted into 72 units of affordable housing. Lucas, featured in a recent VTDigger story, moved into her new one-bedroom apartment earlier this month after living unhoused for four years.
“And that is what we want for all Vermonters — housing that feels like their own, that’s not like a transient place for them,” Balint said at the press conference that followed.
Balint also spoke about her own housing situation. She and her family — her wife, two children and a dog — have lived in the same house in Brattleboro for 15 years. They wanted to move to a slightly bigger house, she said, but were unable to find anything suitable.
“And that means I’m in a house that could be a wonderful starter home for a young family so I get the frustration,” she said.
Balint said housing goes hand-in-hand with mental health and public safety support and that the same issues resonate in Washington. In addition to building housing, Balint continued, it’s important to build the support systems needed to keep people cared for and housed.
“I’m going to partner with anybody, whether it’s through my own party or across the aisle to really continue the incredible work of Patrick Leahy obviously, who is retiring this year,” she said.
With U.S. House committee assignments still about a week out, Balint said she is hoping to serve on either the Financial Services Committee — which she said would provide opportunities to address the housing issue — or the Committee on Agriculture, which would be important for rural Vermont.
“I am so fortunate to be coming into Congress at a time when I feel like I have so many allies who ran for the same reasons I did. They ran for preserving democracy, building housing, mental health support,” Balint said. “So I feel like I have a strong cohort of people who are going to be working with me on these issues.”