Dear Housing Trust friends,

As we reflect on the past year, it is with immense pride for the communities we serve and for our collaborative work together. The resiliency of the people in Southeastern Vermont has been demonstrated many times over the years, but in 2023 it was put into practice in extraordinary ways. As we look back, we can clearly see the impact of this collaboration and collective action that not only lifted each other up in times of intense challenge—an extreme lack of housing, damaging climate change events, societal issues putting pressure on our communities, loss—but also leveraged each other’s strengths to accomplish positive outcomes. 

By sharing some of these stories, we hope that you will be as inspired as we have been. You may even locate yourself on the following pages because you either directly collaborate with the Housing Trust or you support us in making an impact in people’s lives in tangible and meaningful ways. You’ll hear from our program participants like Krystal, a long-term resident on Clark Street in Brattleboro, who was relocated temporarily while her home was being fully renovated. She was supported with such care and intention by the Housing Trust’s Development and SASH for All staff that now, after moving back into her newly revived space, she’s harnessed her entrepreneurial spirit and launched her own business. Steve will tell you about how he finally found a permanent and stable home at the Bellows Falls Garage, returning to a community that he’s had ties with for decades. Kimiye, with the support of our Green Mountain Home Repair team, retained her home insurance, addressed her home safety concerns, and gained a new sense of empowerment as a homeowner. These first-hand stories open a window into the tremendous impact that creating and retaining housing has on peoples’ lives. 

The story of Londonderry is one of a community that identified the need for affordable housing and rolled up their sleeves to address this need. By working with Director of Homeownership Bruce Whitney, they were able to access state funding to transform a donated vacant lot into a new volunteer-built 3-bedroom home for Kara and her kids, a home that will remain affordable to future homebuyers in the generations to come. And the story about the work of our property management team highlights how important collective action is when deeply challenging events occur in the community. 

Above all, we know that the stability and wellbeing of our community is fostered through collaborations and connections at both the neighborhood scale and at the regional level. Creating new rental and homeownership opportunities and providing services to the residents of these homes is accomplished by all of us. We are deeply grateful to our system of support that makes this possible: funders, partners, community members, donors, policy makers, vendors, and members. 

With gratitude,

When it was time to move back into her apartment, Lisa hired a professional organizer to help Krystal sort through her belongings, and get rid of things she didn’t need. She says the experience opened a window of opportunity. “At this strange apex of turning 40 and all these other things going on, energetically I felt like it was time to unburden my space, and focus on me for a change.” She started exploring the idea of starting her own business.

Back in her newly renovated and organized home on Clark Street, and supported by weekly sessions with her therapist, Krystal is now finalizing the business plan for her e-commerce site, KCarrollStudio. She has already opened an online shop on Etsy, and lists an inventory of almost 100 gift items.

“I am excited about my new plan, I’m working very hard to make it and to attain stable success,” says Krystal. “I do want to say that, none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for Lisa Kuneman knocking on my door. I don’t think she even knows the impact she’s had. She cared enough to point me in the right direction, and that has changed everything for me.”

The group launched a fundraising campaign, and appealed to local contractors and volunteers to donate products, services and time. “We found so many people who were willing to volunteer,” says Cynthia. “The Rotary Club was a big help. One of our contractors, Hunter Excavating, was a huge help in getting other contractors on board. The plumber was extremely generous and donated everything, even the materials. We were just really fortunate to have people in town that recognized this huge need, and were willing to help.”

As a WWHT board member, Cynthia knew the Housing Trust could help her group with some of the technical aspects of the complex process of building — and funding — an affordable house. She reached out to Bruce Whitney, Director of Homeownership for WWHT.

“Bruce provided untold hours of technical advice,” she says, “and helped us identify significant grant opportunities. We were able to get an $80,000 grant from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, and then we successfully applied for a Missing Middle grant from the Vermont Housing Finance Agency. That was huge.”

Bruce also arranged for the house to be part of the Shared Equity program, ensuring that it would remain affordable in perpetuity. And because of the work that the Housing Trust does every day, he was able to help set up the parameters for selecting a family. “It was really important that the family could be successful homeowners,” says Cynthia. “We had five applicants, and with Bruce’s help and experience, we were able to make the best selection.” 

The Corlew family moved into their new home on Bob Perry Lane shortly after the closing on March 1. Because the home was part of WWHT’s Shared Equity portfolio, Kara was able to access a down payment grant as well as a low interest mortgage.

“It’s very moving and very rewarding to see us reach this point and turn over the keys to Kara,” says Cynthia. “At the closing, she was just so moved, she was almost speechless. She is just so grateful that she has this opportunity.”

“Being able to purchase this house means the world to all of us,” says Kara. “The kids are excited they’ll have their own room and can choose their favorite color to paint their rooms, they’ll be able to ride their dirt bikes, we can have a garden and grow our own vegetables — it’s just such an amazing opportunity for us and we are so deeply grateful to all those who made this possible for us. It truly is remarkable.”

Its success notwithstanding, the effort was not without obstacles. Cynthia says the most frustrating part of the process was the lack of resources available to rural communities. “The challenge really is how to raise the money to do this. The fact that we were only doing one house — it was a bit of a challenge to explain to people. Multi-family housing requires infrastructure and millions of dollars of investments. We don’t have any of that, so we don’t qualify for a larger size project. It is truly a dilemma for rural towns like ours.”

Limited workforce housing — and affordable housing in general — continues to pose a major challenge for Londonderry and its neighboring mountain towns, where the median price for a modest home is $470,000. “We need young people but they can’t afford to live here,” says Cynthia. “Our local employers, if they find somebody to fill a position, they can’t find housing for them. It’s a huge dilemma for our economy, and for our future.”

And that is the issue that the Mountain Towns Housing Project is now determined to address — one home at a time. The group plans to reinvest the funds received at closing into another project.

“The hope is that we can do it again,” says Cynthia. “We are going to take a little time to review the process and brainstorm how we can do this better with less expense and more quickly.”

She adds, “We believe that one house at a time is better than doing nothing, and we have made one family very happy.”

The Mountain Towns Housing Project is made up of members of local churches, “One Londonderry” volunteers working on housing concerns, and community members from a variety of area towns including Weston, Londonderry, So. Londonderry, Windham, Andover and Ludlow.

The team, which includes Property Managers, Leasing, Resident Services, and Maintenance, was on the front line of a lot of intensely difficult work this past year. From dealing with residents’ health and well-being, to improving maintenance policies and practices, to an all-hands-on-deck response to a community crisis, the Property Management team has stepped up in a big way over the last 12 months.

“This year presented opportunities to better meet the evolving needs in our community,” Director of Asset and Property Management Ed Bordas shared. “One of the things I’m proud of is how we’ve built stronger relationships with community partners and our residents as we’ve responded to challenges.”

As the broader community and the state grappled with the question of public safety, one of the strategies the team developed was through a stronger collaborative relationship with the Brattleboro police department and their embedded HCRS police liaison, Knowles Wentworth. Through regular monthly meetings, the team became more aware of how and when to engage with members of the police department and which department resources to employ. This collaboration has been extended to our residents through neighborhood meetings attended by WWHT’s resident service staff, property management staff and sergeants from the BPD.

“These pieces,” St. Jean explains, “work together. Community partnerships and support and community connections are all stabilizing forces in our neighborhoods.”

These two teams, through their distinct and separate roles, each interact with our community of residents through a person-centered lens. Property managers and maintenance techs focus on the safety of our buildings, our residents, and the neighborhoods in which they live, while the SASH For All team focuses on helping residents maintain housing stability through health and wellness supports and empowers residents to build stronger relationships at the property and neighborhood level. 

If a challenge does come up in the neighborhood, it is always more complex than what meets the public eye. “We’re often the first on site in a crisis,” says Chuck Carriere, WWHT’s Facilities Manager. “Because we’ve known many of these folks for a long time and see them regularly, we can get right to the problem and hopefully restore some calm.”

Anne O’Connor-Chapman, a Putney Landing resident since 2018 and also a resident board member, says it is quite clear that the staff is committed to being responsive and helpful. “Each staff member, no matter what challenges they are going through, is dedicated to helping the tenants. I think that is wonderful.”

Amidst all of this valuable work being done, an unthinkable tragedy occurred in the community when a cherished member of the Groundworks Collaborative staff, Leah Pritchard Rosen, was murdered. The entire WWHT team responded, without question or hesitation, joining a large group of generous community volunteers, stepping in to provide support to residents at Great River Terrace and The Chalet, a role normally filled by Groundworks staff. 

Design: lmwdesign.com | Photography: justinaltman.com and the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust

Design: lmwdesign.com
Photography: justinaltman.com and the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust