One of the issues that I hear about the most is housing, and understandably so. As a working-class, self-employed person and one of only two renters in the Senate, I experience the lack of affordable housing myself every day and it’s frustrating to often find myself the only person like me in committee rooms and on the Senate floor.
This housing crisis started decades ago and it can’t be undone in a session. No one person can fix this, despite campaign rhetoric we all hear. But together, many of us are working on it. This last session, part of the tri-partisan Act 250 reform we passed was specifically to address the housing crisis. The final bill cleared hurdles for development where we have space for more density, while leaving natural areas protected. This is just one piece of the puzzle, though. We need to consider funding sources like taxes on vacation homes and short-term rentals that go into a special fund for affordable housing. Building codes should include innovative, modular building solutions that reduce the cost of new housing and their environmental impact. We have to continue to rehab derelict housing. We need to clear the path for more perpetually affordable cooperative housing where Vermonters have a say in the future of where they live instead of just building more rentals. We can’t just create more incentives for developers to build huge rental housing where tenants have no security once a lease ends. We need opportunities for ownership and equity.
And for our unhoused neighbors, we need to fully fund the Housing First programs that already exist so that people have wrap-around support to get housed and stay housed. These models work, but we can’t give them a fraction of the funding they need and then discard them when they can’t do the impossible. We have to reduce the administrative burden it takes to implement these programs and access benefits, and increase cooperation across state agencies. No one should have to stay on the phone on hold for hours trying to get into housing for the night. What we offer for funding and support is so rigid that it’s almost impossible for unhoused people to determine what they need and get those needs met with dignity. We’re doing a lot of the right things, but we need to do them better.
Tanya Vyhovsky 