Brattleboro, VT — The Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) has awarded funding to three projects in the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust’s Homeownership Center. Two received Missing Middle Program funds and one received Vermont State Affordable Housing Tax Credits. The credits, once sold to investors, the credits will yield equity funding for down payment assistance for newly constructed or substantially rehabilitated single-family homes as well as energy-efficient manufactured homes.
- Tri-Park Cooperative in Brattleboro, in collaboration with Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, will receive an estimated $350,000 in equity to establish 26 new home sites outside of the floodplain, and aid in the purchase of Zero Energy Ready high-performance manufactured homes. This collaboration is modeled after the Manufactured Housing Down Payment Loan Program operated by Champlain Housing Trust.
- South Street in Springfield, a burned and blighted home that is being redeveloped by Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, was awarded $146,140 in Missing Middle-Income Homeownership subsidies and will work with Efficiency Vermont to build a new Zero Energy Modular home.
- Bob Perry Lane House in Londonderry, developed by Mountain Towns Housing Project and Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, was awarded $140,534 in Missing Middle-Income Homeownership subsidies to build a single-family home. (Rendering featured in post image)
“We are very appreciative of the funding awards by VHFA for these three important projects in our region,” says Bruce Whitney, Director of Homeownership for WWHT. “In each case, the funding provides critical support to fill gaps so the projects can move forward. In the current housing market, every house we can create is very important.”
Mountain Towns Housing Fundraising Committee chair Cynthia Gubb commented, “We are thrilled to be a recipient of a VHFA Missing Middle Grant. These funds will allow us to keep the construction of our home on track and sell the home at a price that will be affordable to the selected family. We are excited to take this project over the finish line and are on track, hopeful to have a family in the home by the end of 2023.”
Created in 2000 and expanded several times since, the Vermont State Affordable Housing Tax Credit was created by the Vermont legislature to support the development of affordable rental and for-sale homes, including energy-efficient manufactured homes. Additionally, the state credits are used to support down payment assistance for low and moderate-income households when purchasing a home.
The Missing Middle-Income Homeownership Development Program was established in 2022 to create new, modest homes throughout the state and help meet the needs of low and moderate-income households due to decades of underinvestment in homeownership and increasing median home prices.
Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) was established in 1974 to finance and promote affordable, safe and decent housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income Vermonters.
More information about WWHT’s Homeownership Center, including the Shared Equity Homeownership Program, is available at www.homemattershere.org.
