Carly Berlin covers housing and infrastructure for Vermont Public, in partnership with VTDigger.
The site of a former veterans’ hall and homeless shelter in downtown Burlington has transformed into a five-story affordable housing complex.
The Post Apartments, developed by the nonprofits Champlain Housing Trust and Evernorth, has 38 units that will remain subsidized in perpetuity.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders helped earmark $1 million in federal money for the $24 million project. At a ribbon cutting event on Friday, he said the project should serve as a model locally and beyond.
“In the city of Burlington, in the state of Vermont, in the United States of America, we have a massive, massive housing crisis,” Sanders said. “Maybe instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars fighting a war that we never should have gotten in, we might want to be investing in low-income and affordable housing.”
Sanders supported the creation of a precursor to Champlain Housing Trust when he served as Burlington mayor in the 1980s.
The new apartment complex has eight efficiency-sized units, 26 one-bedrooms and four two-bedrooms. Nine units are set aside for people exiting homelessness, and ten have Section 8 vouchers attached to them, meaning tenants generally won’t pay more than a third of their income toward rent. Monthly rents start at $1,160.
The developers wrapped up construction earlier this year, and the building is currently fully occupied.
The ground floor hosts a new veterans’ center as well as office space for the Chittenden County Community Justice Center. The building is fully electric and has a solar array on the roof.
Constructing “infill” projects like this in downtowns can prove tricky, as builders contend with dirty soils and tight lots.
This location, near the intersection of Main St. and S. Winooski Avenue, was particularly challenging: the apartment complex sits next to a gas station and near a decommissioned sewer in a ravine that once ran through the neighborhood. That led the developers to seek about $1.6 million in what are known as Brownfields remediation funds from the state to clean up the soil.
Like most affordable housing projects, this one brought in funding from a wide array of sources: 20 different budget lines, in this case. Major money came from federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, as well as COVID-era federal stimulus funds allocated by the City of Burlington and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.
“Today we get to celebrate this result, a place for our community, for our veterans, for people who are experiencing homelessness, a place where our neighbors can live with dignity, safety, and affordability,” said Champlain Housing Trust CEO Michael Monte. “It’s a good thing.”
