“So, it’s with mixed emotions that you think, ‘Well, am I taking land away that could be used to house somebody?’” Tony Hall asked rhetorically as he left the polls. “On the other hand, we need to have open spaces … for our life.”
S.100 is about ‘infill’ — adding housing to already-developed neighborhoods, especially urban cores. What it’s not about is incentivizing traditional, single-family housing developments in rural areas.
Landlords who apply can receive funding — up to $10,000 per unit — to hold units for up to two months while they work with providers that offer housing vouchers.
Pouring subsidies into building low-income “affordable” housing has not made an appreciable dent in the shortage of either middle-income or low-income residences. The most effective steps government can take to provide housing is to remove zoning restrictions, update land use plans, and speed permitting.
We don’t need the State to step in under the guise of a housing shortage and control local zoning. The State already did this with education when there was a funding crisis; welcome ACT 60/48. Also, the Climate Crisis has justified the State to take over our fossil fuel usage.
The Manufactured Home Improvement and Repair Program, Republican Gov. Phil Scott said, is being launched in an effort to provide $4 million in financial assistance to mobile home parks, along with current and future manufactured homeowners.
Manufactured housing communities in Vermont will benefit from a new state investment. The Healthy Homes Initiative will dispense $12.6 million in state funding, Gov. Phil Scott said, that will be used to repair, replace, and upgrade water infrastructure in mobile home parks around the state.
Winooski landlords were up in arms at the Jan. 26 public hearing on the proposed just-cause eviction charter change because the measure would prevent them from getting rid of tenants based only on the fact that their lease is up.
Social services leaders say they’re scrambling to figure out what to do when the state’s program to help homeless people stay in hotels ends — either next month as slated or this summer if legislation is passed.
People can’t afford an apartment or house because they have to spend too much on health care, child care, property taxes, food, clothing, heat, electricity, internet, phone service, car registration, car insurance, etc.
Speaking at his weekly press conference Tuesday, Gov. Phil Scott focused on infrastructure and economic development while standing in front of the remodeling project of the Fairbanks Museum.
With interest rates at 7.6% and climbing, construction costs at record levels, and construction labor in short supply, it is not the time to build. It is, however, time for towns and villages to plan and acquire housing sites with zoning and all approvals in place.