Local housing authorities around the state have capped requests for Section 8 housing vouchers by closing waiting lists to deal with a surge in applications. Now the state is following suit. The Vermont State Housing Authority will close its waiting list for Section 8 vouchers by the end of September due to a burgeoning waiting list that exceeds 3,000 people.

Vermont is in line to receive $12.2 million for community development and affordable housing projects, U.S. Housing and Urban Development staff announced Thursday. The state will receive three grants: an $8,049,765 Community Development Block Grant, $3,824,610 in HOME Investment Partnerships funding, and a $364,390 emergency shelter grant.

The 44 renters at Wharf Lane Apartments, at 57 Maple St. in Burlington, are worried they could be out of a home by this time next year. “It’s a combination of fear, a lot of tension and anxiety from wondering what could happen,” said Joe Lane, 38, who has lived in the apartments since 2002. “The unknown of what could happen is a scary feeling." The building, owned by Pizzagalli Properties of South Burlington, has been on a 30-year federal Housing and Urban Development mortgage, which expires next year. Pizzagalli told the residents in late March they wouldn’t renew their HUD arrangement and will put the property up for sale.

The dream of owning a home remains unattainable for many Vermonters, despite a slight drop in the median purchase price for a house in Vermont as a result of the national housing crisis and economic downturn. Even renting a modest two-bedroom apartment is a stretch for many in the Green Mountain State. That’s because many Vermonters don’t earn enough to afford to buy a home and they pay steep rents that consume more than a third of their incomes, according to the 2010 edition of “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont.”

A pair of assisted living facilities in Brattleboro received state grants to help pay for programs unique to their facilities. At Pine Heights, $3,050 will be used for an art appreciation program, and Thompson House will receive $8,000 for the development of a nature trail. The grants were part of the state’s "Enhancing Quality of Life" program, in which $606,000 was awarded to eight facilities in Vermont. The grants are funded from penalties collected from nursing facilities across the state over the last decade for regulatory deficiencies. By law, these funds must be directed to improve resident life in Vermont nursing facilities.

The head of a statewide group said landlords aren't to blame for making Vermont one of the least affordable states to rent an apartment. Stuart Bennett, director of the Vermont Apartment Owners Association, responded in an e-mail to a report last week from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition. The report found that Vermont is the 15th least affordable state for apartment renters. To afford a modest two-bedroom apartment and utilities, a worker needs to earn $17.70 per hour, or $36,812 a year. The national wage is $18.44 an hour.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced that the State of Vermont is being awarded a $250,000 grant to produce new affordable, energy efficient, green housing. Vermont will use its grant to support a local community-based affordable housing developer to create these new homes which will feature a sustainable site design, water-conserving fixtures, energy-efficient appliances/lighting, and environmentally friendly building materials. The funding announced today is awarded through HUD's HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), the nation's largest block grant program to support the production of affordable housing.

In the year after the first non-profit tenant moved into the Nichols Education Building at First Baptist Church in January 2009, three more tenants moved in, filling up the available space. First, the Bennington Free Clinic opened up on the first floor of the building, located downtown. Next, Project Against Violent Encounters’ Family Time program moved into the building, and the Vermont Center for Independent Living and Easter Seals later followed suit. The offering of the previously unused building space is the result of a deliberate decision by the First Baptist congregation to reach out to the community as a form of mission.

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The author of an economics newsletter says housing was more affordable in Vermont last year than at any time since 2003. The Vermont Economy Newsletter's annual analysis of housing costs says that the share of median income needed to finance payments on a "median priced" home in 2009 dropped to 15 percent, thanks to falling sale prices and mortgage rates.

Last week Vermont Works for Women and J.A. Morrissey completed the first phase of efficiency improvements on 60 of 336 units at Burlington’s Northgate Apartments, an affordable rental community located on the banks of Lake Champlain. The housing complex serves families across a range of incomes from below 30 percent of median up to 95 percent of median income. “This is the way to go — creating opportunities for women and others to get out there and learn these skills, work and earn a living, and cut costs and energy consumption at the same time.”  

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The 42 units of Brookside Village are almost fully leased even as the developers of the affordable housing complex on Monday celebrated the just-completed construction. Champlain Housing Trust and Housing Vermont formed a partnership to build the 42 rental units on Morehouse Drive, off Malletts Bay Avenue. The $9.6 million development is just across the city line from Winooski.

A local affordable housing group reports that is has completed a comprehensive study of the town's housing needs and expects to finalize a report summarizing the findings in the spring. Last year, the Bennington Regional Affordable Housing Corporation was awarded a $50,000 grant to perform a feasibility study on the town's affordable housing to determine where improvements could be made.  

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The DoARH, part of the Vermont Housing Data Web site, is a searchable database of all subsidized rental housing in the state — 12,826 units at last count. Users have been able to display individual properties on a map for a couple years. Yesterday’s upgrade now allows users to display multiple properties on a map.

A local affordable housing apartment complex is among four in Vermont set to receive solar water heaters. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Green Jobs and New Economy Subcommittee, announced last week that the Applegate Apartments in Bennington is receiving part of a $500,000 earmark for the solar water heaters. Other apartment locations are in Barre, Brattleboro and Burlington.

After spending a year getting to know Vermont, John Broderick, the executive director for the Regional Affordable Housing Corp. of Bennington County, said that he believes the agency will be able to announce several new projects this year. "Despite a higher number of vacancies than usual, there's still a tremendous need for more affordable housing in Bennington County," Broderick said in a recent interview.