By Mayor Kristine Lott
For the past several months, the Winooski Housing Commission has spent their time working out the details of a Housing Trust Fund to support housing improvement and development for Winooski. At the August meeting, the commission finalized recommendations to present to City Council at the August 19th Meeting.
The Housing Trust Fund has been designed to leverage money we already have available to achieve three goals: 1) Improve the quality of housing in Winooski 2) Expand access to homeownership, and 3) Create more affordable housing units. These goals would be achieved through three respective programs: home improvement loans, down payment assistance and loans for construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing. These funds will be targeted to low to moderate-income owner-occupied units, and to developers of lower-income units. The commission has spent their time designing a program that will be able to meet the housing needs of our city, being thoughtful about offering multiple options to improve our housing stock, and allowing room to adjust course as our housing needs change.
Check out the latest draft and feel free to share your thoughts.
If approved by the council, the commission will then focus on how to get the program off the ground, market it to residents, plan for long-term funding and monitoring of outcomes.
The commission also approved a plan for their work for the upcoming year. In addition to rolling out the Housing Trust Fund program, they will continue to monitor income housing developments and affordability targets, as well as analyze data on parking needs in Winooski and current incentives for the development of affordable housing. The parking and incentives data will inform the work that the Planning Commission is undertaking to ensure our zoning is meeting our community’s vision and needs.
Click here to view the draft documents linked in the meeting agenda. The Housing Commission meets the 4th Monday each month and meetings are open to the public. Feel free to reach out with questions regarding this update: Mayor Kristine Lott – klott@winooskivt.gov