More than $3 million are coming Vermont’s way to invest in affordable housing, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., announced Wednesday morning.
According to a press release from the senior senator’s office, the money will come from the National Housing Trust Fund and will go toward building, preserving, rehabilitating and operating affordable housing units to low-income Vermonters.
The $3 million distribution marks the second-largest ever made to Vermont from the national trust fund — a testament, according to Sanders’ office, to the severity of the state’s ongoing housing crisis. With nearly 3,000 people currently experiencing homelessness in the state, Vermont is estimated to have the second-highest rate of homelessness in the country, second only to California.
“Simply put, a decent, safe, and affordable place to live is a fundamental human right, not a privilege,” Sanders said in Wednesday’s press release. “And yet, here in Vermont and across the country, we are in the midst of a housing crisis that is completely unacceptable.”
Sanders continued to say that the national trust fund, which he pushed for years to create, “plays an important role in addressing that crisis… But it is not enough. We must do more to make sure all Vermonters have a place to call home.”
Sanders pointed to two development projects in Vermont as recent examples of the trust fund at work: In Bellows Falls, trust fund dollars went toward converting a historic building into a 27-unit apartment building, and in Windsor, the dollars helped redevelop a three-story residential apartment building.
