A lack of available housing created a lot of problems in 2023, not only for folks trying to settle in Addison County, but for various businesses and institutions trying to fill vacancies on their workforce rosters.

Employers — ranging from small carpentry teams to Middlebury College — lamented the lack of applications for longstanding job vacancies. The local jobless rate was around 2% or lower for most of the year, confirming most folks were gainfully employed amid a rapidly aging population. Recruiting out-of-staters for those jobs proved arduous, as many couldn’t find a home — or at least one that was right-sized and affordable — in our area.

The lack of available housing placed additional stress on emergency shelters run by the Charter House Coalition in Middlebury and John Graham Housing & Services in Vergennes. The shelters were consistently full, and some houseless people elected to camp out along the Otter Creek and under the Cross Street Bridge off Bakery Lane in Middlebury. That Bakery Lane settlement included at least a few folks who ran afoul of the law, keeping Middlebury police busy with complaints of vandalism, harassment, panhandling, theft and assault. One of the occasional campers was linked to a vandalism spree that resulted in tens of thousands of dollars of damage to cars parked in the downtown area.

THE FRONT PAGE of the Addison Independent on Oct. 26, 2023

Police, in concert with mental health advocates and human services officials, organized a system of daily checks on the campers to ensure their safety and to guard against criminal activity. They also restarted the Middlebury Homelessness Task Force.

But there was cause for hope on the housing front amid all these challenges.

The Middlebury Development Review Board in September conducted its first review of a preliminary plan by Summit Properties to build a 218-unit, mixed-income housing project on 35 acres of Middlebury College-owned land off Seminary Street Extension. As proposed, “Stonecrop Meadows” called for a phase-in of rental and for-sale homes, including affordable, “workforce” and market-rate options.

In Bristol, folks celebrated the opening of the Firehouse Apartments, a new affordable housing development off Firehouse Drive. The development consists of 20 mixed-income units just east of the town’s fire station and across the street from Mount Abraham Union High School and the town’s recreation fields. The 20 units include two duplexes and a block of town homes with one- and two-bedroom units.

The Bristol project was financed with $8,649,000 from a mix of private and public funding sources, including the American Rescue Plan Act, the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board and the Vermont Community Development Program.

In Vergennes came hope for seniors looking for a place to call home. Work began on a $25 million effort to renovate and expand the former Vergennes Residential Care at 34 North St. and equip it with an interconnected 53-room, four-building care home capable of accommodating up to 82 seniors with modest means. It will also triple the business’s employee count from 18 to an estimated 48. The new facility will be called Vergennes Grand.

Middlebury, Vergennes and Bristol all made changes to their respective zoning laws in an effort to promote more housing. Officials in all three communities were hopeful the changes would serve as a catalyst for investment by developers interested in building homes that young families could afford.