Maura Collins, executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, told the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs that Vermont faces a sizeable shortfall of housing and outlined VHFA’s top priorities for production, preservation and financing.

Collins said VHFA’s data show roughly 31% of Vermonters are “cost‑burdened” — paying more than 30% of income for housing — with renters disproportionately affected. “Half of our renters are cost burdened and a full quarter of our renters are actually paying more than half their income for housing costs,” Collins said, warning those households are at high risk of eviction or financial distress.

The agency presented several drivers of demand and supply shortfalls: homes leaving the market because of poor condition, low vacancy rates, and ongoing household formation. Collins described how median sale prices and higher interest rates have pushed homeownership out of reach for many renters; she said the statewide median single‑family sale price rose from about $260,000 in 2021 to roughly $340,000 in recent years and that required down‑payments have moved from around $52,000 to about $68,000 in the same period. She said these changes reduced the number of renters who could afford to buy a median‑priced home from roughly 25,000 to fewer than 10,000.

Collins reviewed VHFA programs and financing tools the agency administers and requested legislative support on several items. VHFA operates largely from its own financing platform; Collins said the agency plans a bond issue of about $45 million that will be sold to investors and used to make low‑rate mortgages and loans for affordable rental projects. She described state investments that “leverage” federal tax credits, HUD and rural development funding and estimated the state portion of subsidy for deeply affordable rental units as “a bit south of $200,000 per unit.”

Policy priorities Collins identified for the committee included:
- Extending authority to sell state housing tax credits so VHFA can continue to fund its revolving down‑payment assistance program and allow the program time to normalize after a slow resale/refinance market. Collins noted the program provides grants and revolving loans to first‑time buyers and to households that are first‑generation buyers.
- Preserving flexibility on rent‑cap requirements in the rental revolving loan program. Collins said the existing 3% statutory annual rent‑increase cap for projects financed under that program can be infeasible when property taxes and insurance rise; she asked that the statute allow VHFA to review developer budgets and approve modest increases when necessary.
- Allowing solar installations on affordable apartment buildings and clarifying how recent Act 250 exemptions affect incentives for off‑site or manufactured housing and other lower‑cost construction techniques.
- Continuing ARPA‑era investments and other state appropriations that have let VHFA use additional tools and reduce federally returned funds.

Collins described tradeoffs the committee must weigh. She said deeply subsidized housing serves the most public policy goals — lowering tenant rents, supporting services, preserving historic structures and meeting energy‑efficiency and climate targets — but that such projects carry higher per‑unit public costs. “If we were just plowing cornfields and putting up high rise buildings, I promise you we could do it cheaper, but we’re doing more than that in Vermont,” Collins said, arguing those additional costs support state climate and social goals.

Collins asked the committee to consider off‑site manufactured housing and other construction innovations to lower per‑unit development costs; she cited a recent state report on off‑site manufactured housing produced with ACCD and the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board and said VHFA is working with other agencies and coalitions, including housing advocates, on “Let’s Build Homes” priorities.

She closed by offering to return for deeper briefings on key programs — the middle‑income homeownership program ($24 million to build roughly 125 homes, she said), the rental revolving loan fund (about 265 apartments financed to date) and the first‑generation homebuyer grant (a $15,000 grant program for eligible households) — and by urging lawmakers to weigh policy levers that will reduce costs per unit while protecting permanently affordable housing where appropriate.

Collins’ presentation framed the committee’s upcoming deliberations on funding, Act 250 changes, construction methods and program refinements the agency says are necessary to increase production and preserve affordability. She said VHFA will return to the committee for more detailed briefings on individual tools and proposals.