SmartTranscript of House General - 2025-02-14 - 10:35AM

[Chair Marc Mihaly]: Welcome, everybody, to the House Committee on General and Housing. Today is Valentine's Day, February fourteenth, twenty twenty five. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Our first matter this morning is representatives of the Vermont Housing and Goat Conservation Coalition. Thank you all for coming. Appreciate spending the day in the people's house. There are gonna be series of testimony, and Chris Donnelly is gonna start off replacing Molly Dugan. So Chris, you want [Chris Donnelly]: to take it away? Sure. Good morning. Chris Donnelly with the Champlain Housing Trust. And this is, it's great to be here. I'm gonna be back with you again. It's probably the shortest testimony you'll ever give me. The Housing Conservation Coalition does a annual legislative day every year. We are in nine different committees today. We've talked to over eighty lawmakers in both all chambers. The Housing and Conservation Coalition is made up of about fifty organizations, community based organizations. And we utilize the money that you allocate and appropriate to the Housing Conservation Board to do the projects that you hear about all the time. And if you can I don't know if this has been this annual report has been given to you from the Housing Conservation Board? They will probably send this to you electronically. [Ashley Bartley]: They're outside on the table. Yeah. So they're out [Chair Marc Mihaly]: on the table. [Chris Donnelly]: You can see or put [Chair Marc Mihaly]: it in our box. [Chris Donnelly]: Okay. You you can see over the last couple of years the investments in the adults made. But just briefly, over the last four or five years, the support to the Housing Conservation Board has allowed us organizations around the state to support various types of housing over forty five hundred households in the state and preserve twelve thousand acres of farmland and ten thousand acres of natural areas of forest. We ask each year that you support full funding for the Housing Conservation Board to the property transfer tax, roughly half of the property transfer tax collected. This year, the governor has recommended in his budget that that legislature fully fund Housing Conservation Board. So we're very appreciative of that. That would be thirty six point nine million dollars. We do know that that's not going to solve the whole housing crisis. And so we do ask that you ask you, make one time investments in the housing side of the, the ledger. But with that, I will, see the chair and let the witnesses tell you about some of the projects. But did you [Ashley Bartley]: Really quick. Can you just Thirty nine point six. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: I'm sorry. [Patrick Shattuck]: Thirty six Thirty six point nine. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Yep. That was the best of the base. Base funding. [Mary Howard]: The base funding. Thank you. [Chris Donnelly]: And happy to talk come back and talk to you more about what additional funding would would look like. Thank you. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: So, Patrick, come forward here. Tell us I don't think I know a number of you haven't been in the committee before, whereas Chris Donnelly is, you know, the seat as of the imprint of Chris. So members of the committee, would would you introduce yourself to the rest of our witnesses? [Mary Howard]: Nothing. We're pleased to hear more. [Ashley Bartley]: I'm Ashley Bartley. I serve Fairfax in the majority of Georgia. Diego Red Dodge, I serve at six town city west extension. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Joe Parsons, you're very tops of any crop. Tom Charles, I'm eighty seven. Happy Chesapeake resident. [Ashley Bartley]: Hi. Mary Howard. I represent Rutland District six. [Patrick Shattuck]: It looks like you're getting these. Good morning. [Ashley Bartley]: I don't know what I should [Mary Howard]: have, chair. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Workman Holly and I I'm sorry. I represent Kalis, Plainfield, and Marshfield. So would you like to state your name for the record and take [Patrick Shattuck]: it away? Good morning. My name is Patrick Shattuck. I'm the executive director of Rural Edge. We are the affordable housing organization serving the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. So a little bit of history about us. We began in nineteen eighty six as the Gilman Housing Trust named after our first housing development in Gilman. It actually was the the mill the mill manager's mansion. It is still in our portfolio because as you will hear today, one very important component of the Housing and Conservation Board funding is it requires perpetual affordability. So those units that were developed in nineteen eighty six are still serving folks today and still a great place to call home and are in in high demand. We're a nonprofit housing and community development corporation. We've been here for thirty nine years and, really, we serve the entire Northeast Kingdom. So we've had [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Patrick, have you had to with respect to that particular project, which is pretty old by now Yeah. [Patrick Shattuck]: Have you had to do any major renovations since then? So one thing we do is we always fund replacement reserves so we're able to work planning for capital improvements but there have been been releases of this that does that's we're fortunate in that project has subsidy associated with it. So we're able to get a little bit higher rent than we would normally see and able to capitalize our reserves. But there have been there was in about two about ten years ago, a more significant revisit of the project, but certainly not to the extent of the original renovation and rear funding reserves. We just did parking lot, paving and re striping because that's very important to elderly folks that you have a an easy to maintain a flat surface. I did some improvements to the common areas and I know we've replaced the roofs within the last couple of years as well. When you say capitalize, is it is it from my understanding, is this correct that when you use federal funds or subset various sources of subsidy, you have to you have to set aside a certain amount each year [Chair Marc Mihaly]: of the income from the project each year in order to cumulate it so that when you have to make repairs, you have something to do it from? [Patrick Shattuck]: Yes. So each month, the portion of the rent is set aside for replacement reserves that's kept in a separate account. And you've gotta know what to do with that. So we have capital needs assessments, which really look at each component in each system of the building and sort of look at the lifespan. So that we're planning for that. It looks at it, span so that we're planning for that. It looks at it for roughly a ten year period so that you know the water heater in you that serves, you know, four units is six years old. You'd better start planning for replacement of that. Now what we do is we take that each year as we're setting the budgets for the property. We identify the capital improvements. We meet with our maintenance staff. We say, okay. Here's what was projected. What have we done in the interim that maybe wasn't expected or what's holding up better than was expected? So we use that to to set aside our plan for our improvements each year within the portfolio. Now we've got at the end of this year, we'll be close to a thousand units across the northeast kingdom. So we're doing that not for just one property, but across the board. And that really it's a team team involvement from everyone we have a capital projects manager you know our finance department the property managers the maintenance staff and and those capital needs assessments which are done by a third party and we have them updated every five years. Thank you. In nineteen ninety eight we joined NeighborWorks. So we are part of the NeighborWorks network. We have a homeownership center and so NeighborWorks the organization monitors us every three years to make sure that we are operating at the highest standards. We have a board that includes both residents of the public private government sector and and residents really importantly include those. So in the photos you can see the top photo is West Burke Housing, Birkeland Lane. This was completed it was completed in phases in twenty late twenty two and twenty three, But there was a property that was developed by a private landlord. It had rental assistance. There were nine units of elderly housing and three family duplexes. They wanted to make sure that the property continued. So they actually worked with us to take it over purchase it and redevelop it. When we looked at it it had about a million dollars you talk about those capital needs while it was operating. It's a privately owned facility we looked and it was going to have about a million dollars worth of investments within the next five years. So we looked at a redevelopment of that but it was also in a village it's in Westberg village walking distance to the post office and the library and the general store and the playground the senior center. And we said we've got a seven and a half acre site. Now a seven and a half acre site that has what's what's also considered a public water system because it's a private system that serves more than twenty six residents three separate leach fields but we were able to add eight new units there as well. So if you look the teal building in the lower right hand corner is the senior building and up on top of the hill sort of looking like a cluster of farm buildings. That's at least what we hope are fifteen units of general occupancy housing including units up to four bedrooms. So really in high demand lots of green space really nice amenity. And the the property on the lower left is Derby Line Gardens about five hundred feet from the Canadian border. A beautiful structure. It has nine units of elderly housing. Patrick, is that one of the things that we've been hearing testimony on, some of it jointly with the commerce committee, has been different ways of helping communities build in rural areas with new financing devices. And one [Chair Marc Mihaly]: of the issues is, well, what are the size of developments that we're seeing? So I'm hearing nine units. What what what's the range that you're usually looking at when you develop? [Patrick Shattuck]: Yeah. You know our goal is to get to twenty. So elsewhere in the state that's considered a small project, That's considered a large project for us. And in the building on the top, West Burke, you know, we got to twenty four units through five buildings with multiple leach fields and our own system, even though it's in a village center, near a ski area, you know, high area of demand. So the complexity is is really important to consider. That impacts cost. I think we have fourteen different funding sources for that. But it's also really important that it fits in with the village. It doesn't look like it stands out. You know, it looks very consistent with with, the community, and because of that, people really love living there. So, you know, the HGB funding brings, as I said, we've got a diverse portfolio of over a thousand perpetual or almost a thousand perpetually affordable units. We've got a big pipeline. So when we talk about that money, the the governor's recommended appropriation, that's the base. To keep going and producing at at what we have planned, we're going to need more. And we know that that fits the need in large urban areas and it fits it it's needed in in rural communities. And we've got it in all corners of the kingdom. We're working with JPeak on housing there. We're working in Lowell. We've got lots of construction underway in both Newport City and town. Getting ready to break ground later this year in St Johnsbury and Danville and Peacham. So really those are projects that are really active and then we've got others we're working on. You know we work with community partners one thing that's really important is we work with the municipalities we listen to them we talk to their planning commissions we talk with local groups we partner with libraries in Groton we own the library. That's been a long term part of the redevelopment of that town center complex and and it complements our housing. So we really look especially in rural communities as how we have those relationships and and how they complement each other. But that real estate portfolio, that investment of VHCB funds brings over seven hundred thousand dollars annually to local and school taxes. I actually looked at again, the most recent number, it's it's closer to eight hundred thousand. But, you know, that's we're frequently asked. Do your properties pay taxes? Yes. In many communities, you know here we're the highest taxpayer. You know we make our staff available to community partners to talk about projects whether they're hours or whether they're other housing resources and that's something that VHCB resources bring allow our organization to do and really we provide housing for the most vulnerable residents of the region. Forty three percent of the residents in the units that we own and occupy have moved in from homelessness. I believe that's the highest of any of the housing organizations and we just did a survey about seventy percent of our residents have household incomes less than twenty thousand dollars in it. You know do you [Chair Marc Mihaly]: happen to know off the top of your head what the median income is in Canada? [Patrick Shattuck]: Well so so it varies and of course it's based by household size so we look at it you know there are median household incomes but it's also our units are are based on household size Right. And and the limitations. So it I don't want to quote it off the top of my head but we can certainly get back for you. Thank you. You know, we're doing exciting things. These are our Newport Crossing. This is a redevelopment of the former Sacred Heart site in Newport City. So adjacent to St. Mary's star of the sea, if you've been to Newport in that church that sits the highest point and looks over long views of Lake Memphremagog. We acquired closing in November, the former school, convent, and eight and a half acres. It was a brownfield site. Eight and a half acres. I will tell you about twenty five years ago, the nuns had removed two underground storage tanks, and they did that all by the boof, and no one knows what happened with the soil. And so I can imagine someone saying to the to the custodian, just go spread that around the fields. Well, we can tell you we've we've done, I believe it was fifty one test wells on the site. We know that those soils were spread out to the point where they aren't contaminated anymore. But because it took a over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in investigation and and we're doing remediation where where there was a small area. But the convent will be twenty six units of rental housing and then the school next door will start later this year converting it into twenty four shared equity condominiums. So really looking and working with the City to create a new neighborhood a diverse neighborhood different housing opportunities. Both projects have funding from BHCD and and are fully funded and we're we're underway. We're framing out apartments and and pouring a new footers for for Newport Crossing. I wanna make sure that you get to what you need to tell us since we have another three witnesses to go. Yeah. That is [Chair Marc Mihaly]: you've got about five minutes now. [Patrick Shattuck]: Okay. So I think it's important we talk about the buildings, but we also have the impact on people. So what does the VHGB funding bring to the people we serve? Safe, secure housing, a new beginning and hope, a supportive environment, convenience and affordability, and a healthy environment where residents thrive. So I've just included here some some stories these brothers moved in four years ago into Olivia Place housing in Lindenville. They had housing but they had no hot water, no shower. The heat, the oil tank had failed. And so the heat that they had and they were paying rent, they had to manually feed their oil burner and, of course, it wouldn't run all night. So they were constantly dealing with with frozen pipes, [Ashley Bartley]: and we didn't have [Patrick Shattuck]: a lock on their door. So they were very excited. And what was so excited when we talked about what housing meant to them, their new unit, and they both [Chair Marc Mihaly]: go to they will both [Patrick Shattuck]: go to work work full time we're able to be clean and warm and we haven't been sick at all since we got here you know these are not high standards You know, we're certainly providing a whole lot more, but that's what they were looking for. And that's what we constantly hear from folks in the kingdom, and I know my colleagues hear that across the state. The shelter at Moose River opened, in January of last year. Prior to that, there had been no emergency shelter in the Northeast Kingdom. Lots of folks working, but we don't have a designated agency to serve those experiencing homelessness in the Northeast Kingdom, but there really wasn't a lot of progress. We found a property that might work and in four months with VHGV commitment and they were there early on, We were able to acquire a property, upgrade it, and get its certificate of occupancy within four months. No. It's not fancy. It wasn't a significant investment. And in fact, part of it was let's get something up and operating. So we focused on sprinkler system and air handling and accessibility, and come back to us when you understand how it operates. So we actually submitted late yesterday a request for the second phase, which will add some beds and and more program space. But these folks are really unique. They actually spoke at the opening and really shared what that facility has meant to them. One had been in our housing before. She had a Cares voucher. When they were split up, they both struggled with addiction. Her care voucher expired, and she left on her own because she knew she couldn't afford rent, ended up in a motel. They reunited, lapsed into addiction, ended up leaving the motel, and they ended up at the shelter. And they had a place where they were supported, and they had access to services. And they now have turned their lives around. They are actually renting a VHIP unit in St. Johnsbury so they're in permanent housing. She's working locally, and he is pursuing a goal of securing a full time job as a peer counselor. So we had lots of run ins with these folks along the way. They rented from us, then she didn't. But it was that emergency shelter, that investment that has now gotten them into permanent housing. Thank you. I have to this is really interesting, and I I have to ask you to wind up. I okay. Got lots of involved residents. I do wanna focus on the homeownership programs because they are so important to us so VHGB's homeland program allows consumer led initiated purchases to receive funding in exchange for perpetual affordability. So the top house was a single mom in Orleans who works at Ethan Allen making sixteen dollars an hour. She was renting the house where it was placed on the market and she came to us she was concerned she was going to not have a place to live. We worked with BHGB's home loan program and equity builder from the federal home loan bank and she was able to purchase that house and is paying less than she was renting. And then the bottom one, I will just share a little bit of testimony not with my rural edge hat but as a dad. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: I I think you've got about a minute. [Patrick Shattuck]: Okay. I'll I'm doing it. It's really quickly. The house in the lower right is a house that my daughter purchased through the homeland program. She had gone to school out of state, returned to the state with her partner a couple of years ago. She works in a social service agency with kids on the spectrum. Her partner works at a hospital processing insurance claims, not high paying jobs. They wanted to be in Vermont, and they were able to purchase this home using using a homeland. But what the story what makes it kind of unique is it was a house that we renovated in nineteen ninety nine to bring her home to the from the hospital. And it's a baby. It's in Groton. And she saw it, and she's it it had declined, and she wanted to turn it into her home. So she has now purchased it, is doing repairs, is volunteering in the community. And I think we talk about housing for the next generation. And so I can testify as a parent, not just a housing organization, but, you know, these programs are for our friends, our neighbors, and our families. They impact all of us. They're so important. So all I can do is, you know, encourage full funding of the HCB and any more that you can bring because we'll certainly put it to good use. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Thank you very much, Patrick. Thank you. For sharing with us what Rural Edge is doing. Our next witness is Hannah Pickett, who is a resident, Champlain Housing Trust resident. I'm sorry. I apologize to people, but we do have a what it is is that we have another witness coming in to testify at eleven thirty. [Hannah Pickett]: Good morning. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Morning. Tell us your name. [Hannah Pickett]: I'm Hannah Pickett. I live in Williston at Zephyr Place where I'm a Champlain Housing Trust resident. I am not homeless because of the work that CHT has done, the support of the Vermont Housing Conservation Board. And I want to tell you my story of hardship, resiliency, and hope. I grew up in the beautiful state of Vermont. I'm thirty seven and a graduate of the Community College of Vermont with a degree in medical assisting. I loved working in health care, connecting with patients, helping providers, making a difference. But in two thousand eighteen, I was rear ended in a car accident. My glasses came off my face. Everything in my car went flying. My glove box opened from the impact. My car wasn't badly damaged, so I assumed I was fine. I was not fine. I had lost basic skills like reading comprehension, math, executive functioning, telling time, problem solving It's not good. From daily migraines, exhaustion, and confusion. It has taken me until recently to recover. I lost my job, had limited income, and eventually received an eviction notice right before the pandemic. I was so sick and stressed from financial instability, I lost all of my hair. I was overwhelmed, scared, and confused. Upon eviction, I had nowhere to go. I lost most of my belongings, including my fifteen year old support cat. I was completely on my own with a damaged brain. It was exhausting being exposed to the weather. I was having constant PTSD attacks, losing time, blacking out, not seeing where I was or what I was doing when they entered. I was very vulnerable, frail, and weak. I was falling asleep in public. And as a single woman, that's very dangerous. I had difficulty finding shelter. We don't have enough shelters, and we certainly don't have enough housing. After some time, I was hospitalized, and it took about a month and a half for me to gain enough strength to leave the hospital. A nurse case manager helped me apply for disability and the emergency hotel program during the pandemic. Without a stable address, I would not have been able to apply for Social Security benefits or secure my housing. I finally located my emotional support animal, Minu. He was with animal control being processed to be sent to a shelter. Conditions at the motel were rough, but I had a roof over my head that was very grateful. If it were not for the emergency hotel program, I would have not survived due to my disabilities and my poor health. My nurse case manager helped connect me with CHT, leading me to secure my housing voucher once my section eight voucher was approved. There's typically a five year waiting list for section eight. There is a lack of affordable housing for low income and the disabled in Vermont. My social security benefits will not cover one month's rent for a one bedroom apartment at market rate. I moved into a CHD apartment just in time and finally had a safe space to rebuild my life. My apartment is spacious, beautiful, full of light with large windows. Minu likes to watch the birds. I love to bake and share good days with my neighbors. When I walked in, I knew we were finally home. Most people are unhoused for reasons like losing your good health like myself, leaving an abusive relationship, trauma, a death, falling behind on rent or a mortgage. Because of my housing, I am safe, healthy, and even happy. I have not had a PTSD related event in two years. As you can see, I now have hair. This is what stability looks like. Today, I live at Zephyr Place, a former hotel converted by CHT into seventy two apartments using BHCB's funding. Many of the residents share a similar or more difficult story. We have a sense of community at Zephyr Place with monthly coffee hour, ice cream socials, and summer gardening activities with our property manager. These things matter so much to us. Our resident services coordinator, Katie, helped me turn my hobby card making into a small business. I now have a fulfilling life. I am able to volunteer in my community and make art when I am not in paint. CHT has given me safety, stability, and a new sense of purpose. Thank you for having me. I hope that you are able to fully fund VHCB. I'm told that won't create as much housing as we need, so please provide even more funding if you can. There are just too many people out there that are still looking for the stability that I've been able to find. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Thank you. Do members of the committee have questions? Oh, go ahead. [Leonora Dodge]: Well, not a question, but I had the honor of hearing your story at the Champlain Housing Trust Luncheon. And I'm glad to get to see you again because I wanted to tell you that you had me in tears about me Mino, the cat. I was just like, oh, I got in. But thank you so much for coming here and sharing your story with all of us. It's so important to hear your lived experience and how much, Champlain Housing Trust has really helped, And I'm so happy to hear, your story again and would love to see some of your cards. Great. [Hannah Pickett]: Thank you. I can give you a business card. [Leonora Dodge]: Perfect. [Hannah Pickett]: Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Any other questions by committee members? Thank you so much. [Mary Howard]: Thank you. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Anna for coming. Appreciate it. Kate winner. Kate, you wanna since you saw us introduce ourselves, would you like to introduce yourself? [Ashley Bartley]: Sure. Kate Monner, from the Trust Republic Land. I'm the conservation director there for the state of Vermont, and I've been born. I've been with Trust Republic Land for twenty years. Thank you so much for your time today. So, Chester Public Land was, founded fifty two years ago. We work all across the country on creating parks and conservation areas important to communities, with a mission centered around public access to the outdoors and, you know, deep community benefits. So across the country, we've conserved, more than four million acres here in Vermont. It's a little over seventy two thousand acres. And across the country, we've done everything from urban parks to community gardens to huge wilderness areas in Montana. Here in Vermont, we've really focused the last thirty five years on forestland conservation. So new community forests, addition to Green Mountain National Forest forest, additions to state parks and state forests, as well as, public easements on large private forest land. So funding so in Vermont, we lose more than twelve thousand acres of forest land per year. That is, one of the big sources for our recreation, our clean water, our clean air, and home for our wildlife. Across New England, about sixty three percent of Vermont's conserved lands provides public access, compared to about eighty seven percent of public land provides public access in New Hampshire and Maine. And more than twenty percent of Vermonters, including thirty one thousand kids, lack close to home access to the outdoors. So funding from Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, as well as federal funding, state funding, and private sources help keep our forests intact and intact and open for recreation. So I wanted to share one story of a conservation project that completely transformed the community, and it and it it is right where representative Burrows lives in West Windsor. This was a conservation [Mary Howard]: house. No. It's [Ashley Bartley]: not. So this was a conservation project that Trust Republic Land worked with the town ten years ago. And I'm bringing it up today because in the Valley News this week, and it was reprinted in Vermont Digger two days ago, was a story of the impact over the last ten years of this property that we helped them conserve and the incredible volunteers of the Skutney Outdoors who really have helped transform, this community. So West Windsor, population of a little more than a thousand souls at the time, and the center of town is Mount Escutney, this the former ski area. Until twenty ten, it was the major source of jobs in town. After, Buscoting Resort closed, West Windsor lost all of their restaurants, but one, all of their bed and breakfasts, their ski and bike shop, one of their two general stores. Between twenty ten and twenty fifteen, their grand less dropped by a third. The condos at the base of the ski area that have been selling for three hundred thousand dollars were selling for a hundred thousand dollars, and they were rented out at whatever price the the owners could get for them. Towneater searched for buyers for the ski resort to no avail. So their one saving grace was a group of intrepid volunteers called Sports Trails of the Skutney Basin that have been busy building recreational infrastructure on both the private resort property as well as the adjacent eleven hundred acre town forest. High quality mountain bike trails, hiking trails, that hosted the Vermont Mountain Biking Festival, Vermont fifty, gatherings and races that attracted thousands, from all over New England each year. These trails, started to attract even more attention, but half of the thirty five mile trip was threatened because it was on this, private, resort property. So the town really wanted to invest more money in marketing the trail network and providing a source of recreation for all of New England. But with a loose agreement with the town, the landowner could cut off access to half the trail network with just thirty days notice. In two thousand fourteen, as the final title issues were being cleared on the bankrupt resort, the owner planned to liquidate. He was going to subdivide. He was looking at putting up wind towers. He was looking into clear cutting. He had conversations about turning them out into a private ski racing school that would have no public access. So the town select board chair asked for help from the trust of public land, and we partnered on a plan for the town to buy the ski area and manage it as a community asset. Their vision was to secure the trail network and the former ski resort, reinvent the town as a four season recreation destination, improve the economic, outlook of the town, protect a biodiversity hotspot, protect the public drunk drinking water source that was on the resort property, and create a nonprofit community ski area and provide recreation opportunities to all families regardless of of income. Many people cannot afford a hundred dollar plus, daily ski ticket for parking lots of areas. So they succeeded on all counts. Here's a map of the property. The resort property is in red, and in brown at the bottom is the existing West Windsor Town Forest. And you can see the the propensity of trail networks throughout the property. So Trust Republic Land helped them by the mountain and support their vision to become a four season recreation destination, not dependent on fickle snowfall or expensive operations. We also work with them to do a detailed ecological analysis of the property and a recreation analysis. Because this wasn't just, a bunch of trails through Plainville forest land. It was a biodiversity hotspot on a Monadnock. So a mountain kind of not connected to any other mountain range. So when we expanded their town forest by adding the resort property, we asked them to add a natural area overlay to protect the most important ecological areas. So as part of the conservation easement, that's held by Upper Valley Land Trust, seven hundred and seventy five acres of this property, there'll be no new trail building, nor any, timber harvesting, eventually leading to old growth forest and protection of biodiversity at the top of the mountain. We also designated a multi use recreation area that allowed a t bar lift to go halfway up the old ski resort area, but the upper half of the mountain is for those willing to earn your turns either with fat bikes or with skins on the bottom of your skis. So this was about a million dollar project, and it was funded with a three hundred thousand dollar grant from Vermont Housing Conservation Board. The town put a little in over a hundred thousand and we secured five hundred and sixty thousand from, Open Space Institute, thirteen private foundations and dozens of private donors. So ten years later, what has the impact been? They made the front cover of The New York Times with an article about the town that saved a mountain and the mountain that saved a town. They have community concerts on the property. They've created a new discovery trail, with inter interpretive signs. They have a after school outdoor program where they bus the kids straight from the elementary school to the mountain and are outside every afternoon. Summer adventure camps, private events, and, supporting all the bases they did before plus some new ones. And this is and I I'd love to hear your input if you're if you're willing, but, they they build a new it's got an outdoor center at the base. They put in a rope tow in the last ten years with a tubing lift. The general store is thriving because there's lots of new visitors between twenty ten and twenty twenty. So this was, like, right before all the pandemic population increases. But their their population increased twenty two percent, in those ten years. And more permanent residents, have, come to live there versus seasonal residents, which has stabilized the school enrollment. Single family home prices more than doubled before the pandemic. And then, as I mentioned before, the revitalization of the the general store as the Bravo Butcher and Pantry. And their their population has grown by more than, thirty percent, just in in four years. So BHGB's three hundred thousand dollars was absolutely vital, to this community transformation in West Windsor, and I hope you support both from [Mary Howard]: the BHCD both this year and every year. Questions from my committee? Salman? I [Speaker 7 ]: I none of that would have been possible without you guys. Not one bit of it. I mean, we could have we we came up with a or our town came up with a lot of really robust partnerships of of, like, in, you know, small and big donations, but none of that would have mattered without your your support and partnership. Well, the the volunteers that live [Ashley Bartley]: in this town are well, the leadership on the slide board are just, like, the best people I've ever met. [Mary Howard]: One of the things that [Speaker 7 ]: I think is really amusing is if you read if you when the article came out in the New York Times about the mountain that saved the town and the town that saved the mountain right back. If you read the comments, people across the country would say, this is never gonna survive based on volunteers, but, actually, we clamor I'm a volunteer. We clamor and argue over who gets to volunteer. That's fantastic. [Mary Howard]: And I will also add that one of the things that, you know, [Speaker 7 ]: the difference has brought to our community is training or or providing ski instruction for every single student who wants it. Starting in kindergarten, they close the schools down, not just in our town, but in the whole area. And they provide, through donations, they provide, skis for all of the kids. So it doesn't matter what their income level is. And they learn first on the roto and then on the t bar. And it's a huge, like and we had I don't know if we still do or not because my kids aren't that young anymore, but we had as the instructors, like, the the trainer for the US ski team was one of the led ski instructors, which is how I got my kids. So I said, you know, you're not not doing that. [Mary Howard]: Yeah. Not doing that. It's opportunity. [Speaker 7 ]: But it's really been a huge a huge, huge benefit in that. You know, they they continually give in robust ways to our town, and none of that would have been possible without you guys. [Mary Howard]: Thank you. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Well, thank you, Keith. I really appreciate you coming and telling us about the project and what you're doing. [Mary Howard]: Yeah. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Mary Cohen? [Patrick Shattuck]: Yes. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Please come forward and talk to us. Okay. [Mary Howard]: Okay. [18 seconds of silence] [Patrick Shattuck]: Debbie, Debbie, can you hear us? I just wanna make sure I see your name up there. [Mary Howard]: Yes. Yes. I think. Alright. [Speaker 7 ]: Are you on the Zoom? Hold on. Yeah. Yeah. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Is that is that gonna work? Or do you need a marketing assistant? It's me, usually. [Mary Howard]: Yeah. She's going to share. Just wanna share. Oh, your screen. [Speaker 7 ]: There we go. That is good. There we go. [Mary Howard]: Hi, everybody. My name is Mary Cohen. I'm the executive director of the new Cornerstone Housing Partners, which is probably a name you have not heard much of yet. We are a new organization official as of the first of the year. We have combined three housing organizations in the southwest section of Vermont, Bennington, Rutland, and actually part of us is even in Addison County. NeighborWorks of Western Vermont, Shires Housing and the Housing Trust of Rutland County have all come together. This is super important. We are now a portfolio of eight fifteen perpetually affordable apartments, as well as seventy four shared equity homes. I will tell you that BHCB has been incredibly supportive of its merger, and the merger has really established a heft and a strength of housing organizations within the southwest corner. But it's really important. And, again, VHCB has been instrumental in helping us accomplish this. Wanna tell you a little bit about the projects? Yeah. Are you going through the slides? Are you switching slides? Is [Ashley Bartley]: there a mouse? I've already got a [Mary Howard]: couple. Yeah. [Patrick Shattuck]: It's me. [Mary Howard]: There we go. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Maybe down there at the bottom right is the slideshow. Yeah. [Mary Howard]: You're looking why it's in Yeah. Alright. It is yeah. Because you're just gonna need [Chair Marc Mihaly]: to do it. Okay. I don't know if [Patrick Shattuck]: we're gonna [Mary Howard]: I will do that. [Ashley Bartley]: I don't know what's up. It's just not it's not advancing, Mary. So Okay. [Mary Howard]: Okay. So this is a a current project that we are working on. This is in West Rutland. This top picture was what it used to be a year ago. That yellow building was burned. It was called the attractive nuisance, attracting the wrong type types. The blue building was an the [Chair Marc Mihaly]: She her you might help her, technically. She's unable to advance its lives. [Ashley Bartley]: I tried. [Mary Howard]: There you go. Just try to slap this. Oh, it's great. Yay. That was thank you. I do wanted to show you our logo. I'm a little bit more excited. It's a lot of work. [Ashley Bartley]: So, anyway, this is a current project that we [Mary Howard]: have either way. Now you can see the top picture is what it was. The bottom picture was taken last week. We are building twenty four new units right in the center of, West Rutland, incredibly, important and needed. In twenty twenty one, the town manager came to me and said, hey. We have people who need to downsize in West Rutland. How can we possibly help them? And so this is the result. It's having quite an impact. And as you can see, the VHCB investment was significant, but it also leveraged almost ten million dollars in this project, you know, coming into our our community. Okay. This is East Creek Commons. East Creek Commons is actually a thirty five unit project. I just wanna show you this picture because this is, you know, what we're buying. This is currently owned by the city. We are not tearing it down, although it looks like it probably should come down. We are not only not tearing it down, we're gonna renovate it and do an addition on there. So there'll be twenty two units in this particular complex, but we've added some other buildings. Again, a significant BHCV investment. This project would not happen. This flight would not be taken care of if it wasn't for BHCV's investment and then tax credit equity, etcetera. So, again, leveraging another eight million. This is a just gonna go through the projects quickly. This is a thirty unit that we are planning of of Lakewood Commons. It was formerly known as one thirty three Forest Street. It happens to be in Mary's neighborhood. You know, this is what we're looking at now. Unfortunately, there's some there's Spencer tents in here recently. It's really probably a good idea to get them from outside the tent and into a nice, safe, affordable unit. There's gonna be thirty units here. We are hoping to close on this project at the end of March. Again, would not happen without the BHCB investment. So on our organization over the last four years, what BHCV has done is not only support us in our real estate development, but supported our organizational strength. And as I had mentioned earlier, you know, our merger would have been a lot more challenging if we didn't cover the dollar and the dollars from BHCV. They give us operational funding, make sure we have the highest trained staff to do this type of work, all really important investments in the organization as well as in affordable housing. This is just in the last four years of what's been happening, which is significant. Certainly for Reuben County, this doesn't include Bennington County. But now that we're part of Bennington County, it will. It's super important. So what are we asking? We are asking certainly for the base funding that the governor has also agreed to. We are really appreciative of his support. And then the additional appropriations, don't look at the spelling of appropriations. Because a lot of this work is not done yet, and so we need all the help that we can get. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: Thank you. Questions from the committee? Mary, thank you so much. Your your new organization is very exciting, and I [Mary Howard]: wish it well. Thank you. Thank you very much. [Chair Marc Mihaly]: And to understand the message that you've all brought. Thank you so much for the co representative of the coalition for having come, and good luck with your next committee. Is Kevin Moyer here? Great. Kevin, I think this committee needs to take a five minute break. You can go ahead and sit back. Okay. So members of the committee, we are going to take a

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