During his weekly briefing today, Vermont Governor Phil Scott focused on the two key issues he is hearing about as he restarts visits to each county in the state: affordability and the need for housing.
The Republican began his Capital for a Day tour in 2018, traveling with his cabinet members to each county to hear from community leaders, employers and families. Scott has restarted the treks and is beginning in areas hardest hit by flooding. Over the past two weeks he has been in Caledonia and Washington Counties, where Scott said they participated in flood recovery meetings in Plainfield and Lyndonville.
“Both towns are struggling with a small number of municipal officials and volunteers who have been dealing with flooding, infrastructure, paperwork and budget constraints for over a year now. And they’re tired. Importantly, many of their challenges didn’t start with flooding,” Scott said. “These smaller communities are the ones I’m thinking of and fighting for when I talk about reversing our demographic trends, making Vermont more affordable, keeping employers here and more.”
Scott said employers he met with repeated two common themes that he says he has long urged state legislators to address.
“When I asked what the top issue was nearly all of them said affordability. The second biggest issue, which is part of the affordability crisis, is a lack of housing,” Scott said. ‘Even when they can recruit someone they often lose that candidate because they can’t find anywhere decent to live at a price they can afford.”
Agency of Commerce and Community Development Secretary Lindsay Kurrle said there is a dire need for housing across Vermont, pointing to the latest Housing Needs Assessment released last week by the state.
“Looking at demand, the new Housing Needs Assessment finds half of Vermonters who rent spend 30 percent or more of their income on housing. Even more startling, one-quarter of all Vermonters who rent spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs,” Kurrle reported. “When it comes to supply the report shows that between 2025 and 2029 Vermont needs to add between 24,000 and 36,000 homes. That is 4,800 to 7,200 units per year. Right now we build approximately 2,300 per year. That’s not even half the target set in this Housing Needs Assessment.”
During the last legislative session Act 250 permit exemptions were approved for two years in designated areas to allow housing to be built. Act 250 is Vermont’s statewide land use zoning law.
An interim exemption map is now available that shows where housing can be built now without an Act 250 permit. Department of Housing & Community Development Commissioner Alex Farrell explained that they are also trying to build in more compact areas to reduce costs.
“A lot of what we’re trying to achieve is areas where you can build in greater density so that the per unit cost can come down. Because some of the fixed costs such as land acquisition and bringing in infrastructure you want to spread that over more units so that per unit cost can come down,” explained Farrell. “In addition to that, we’re trying to seek incentives so that folks can have additional cash flow support at the start of the project.”
