I’ve been glad to see robust local coverage of housing issues in the Addy Indy. I’d like to elaborate on a few pieces from last week.

The College’s investment in the Seminary Street project is much needed and a great boon for the town. Addison Housing Works (AHW) will also be investing $800,000 in downpayment grants from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to help make six of the new homes affordable so that households earning about 80% – 120% of area median income (that’s up to $130,000 for a family of four) can benefit from this great new housing. This will bring the price of a new home at Stonecrop down to under $250,000.

At the same time, AHW has to compete with private for-profit developers in order to support the heart of our work, which is to provide housing for families and individuals earning under about $40,000 per year, at a time when public dollars are increasingly falling short relative to the rising costs of building housing. College investment in Addison County’s nonprofit affordable housing developer and manager would also be a critical and welcome investment.

Finally, I would like to note that in Angelo Lynn’s Op-Ed, he attributed a study to Addison County Housing Trust — that’s actually us, Addison Housing Works! We changed our name from the Addison County Community Trust in 2023 to better reflect our mission. The study referenced is actually a workforce housing study that three Middlebury College students completed for us in 2021 with support from several of our incredibly dedicated volunteer board members who care deeply about affordable housing in our community and growing the next generation of local housing leaders. The students surveyed 897 employees of local organizations and businesses and found 230 said they would move closer to work if they could afford it. Of those, about half earned less than 120% of area median income, which is the market served by Addison Housing Works. You can check out the full report on our website at addisonhousingworks.org.

We will all have to work together and pull out all the stops to address the housing crisis in Addison County. Addison Housing Works has more than 200 households on its waitlist today, people who are currently struggling to find an affordable and decent place to live. It’s heartening to see the progress Rutland has made, and AHW and I are looking forward to partnering on solutions for Addison County as well.

Elise Shanbacker

Vergennes