Bennington County needs close to 1,500 new housing units by 2030, according to Bill Colvin, Bennington County Regional Commission executive director.
A new initiative called “Building up Bennington,” which was announced on Monday, is designed to chip away at that “daunting” demand by offering low-interest loans to build and rehab vacant housing units, State Treasurer Mike Pieciak said.
Pieciak’s office committed $2.5 million to the initiative through the 10% in Vermont program that allows the treasurer’s office to allocate 10% of state’s cash on hand to projects that build the economy.
The loan program could help a range of people looking for homes in Bennington County, including hospital staff and others.
The medical center is the largest employer in the region, and yet housing for medical staff is hard to come by, said the new President and CEO of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center Estevan Garcia. Even Garcia said he struggled to find housing in Bennington, adding that the home he currently resides in is only temporary.
Jim Brown, Bank of Bennington President and CEO, said the Building Up Bennington County program will help bring housing projects off the sidelines that are not moving forward because of costs. Developers can apply for up to $200,000 in loans through the bank with a 3% fixed interest rate that will kick in once projects are complete.
Bennington has already gained 46 homes through 10% in Vermont investments between 2023 and 2025, according to data from the State Treasurer’s Office.
Building Up Bennington is similar to the Roofs Over Rutland program based in Rutland City under former Mayor Mike Doenges, which partnered with Heritage Family Credit Union to roll out low-interest loans with $8 million funding from the treasurer’s office. In the past three years, Rutland City gained around 90 new housing units through investment in the Roofs Over Rutland program, and all of the money directed to the program has been committed to projects, Pieciak said.
Brown said he has already been approached by several developers to put money from the program to work. Brown expects at least 13 new housing units will come on line through initial $2.5 million investment, but he said the number of units could double if some projects focused on fixing vacant properties, which costs less than new builds.
Lawmakers are considering a housing bill that includes a provision to add to the funding pot for the 10% in Vermont program this session.
More than half of the region’s renters spend more than 30% of their income on rent, and Bennington county has the second lowest home-ownership rate in the state, said Colvin. The lack of affordable housing plaguing the state impedes economic growth because it makes it difficult for employers to recruit and retain workers, he added.
The lack of housing for essential workers means that the medical center needs to bring in traveling staff, which is more expensive for hospitals, contributing to high health care costs, Garcia said.
The lack of housing stock is also driving up homelessness in Vermont, according to Pieciak, who called the conundrum the state’s “number one social issue.”
“There’s almost no issue in Vermont that we can solve without building more housing,” Pieciak said. “Building more housing alone won’t solve all those issues, but we can’t even begin to solve them if we don’t have more housing and more economic opportunity that comes with that.”
