WASHINGTON, DC - A new national trust fund created by Congress to spur construction of affordable housing was modeled after pioneering efforts that began in Burlington and spread quickly throughout Vermont."It's exciting to have something that started in Vermont go nationwide," said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who worked to ensure that the state will get at least $3 million a year from the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
The fund, which will provide $500 million a year throughout the United States by 2012, is part of a broader housing and mortgage relief bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush on July 30. The idea was based in part on a program that began more than 20 years ago in Burlington, when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was mayor. Sanders credits local housing advocates with coming up with the plan for the Burlington Community Land Trust in 1984, when real estate prices in Chittenden County were soaring.
From its modest start helping a few families, the trust has expanded and become the Champlain Housing Trust, offering affordable housing throughout Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties. More than 2,100 people now live in homes created by the Champlain trust, recently chosen for a United Nations' World Habitat Award.
Three years after the Burlington trust was created, Welch, serving in the Vermont state Senate, helped pass the Vermont Housing and Conservation Trust Fund Act. That law has led to the creation of more than 8,500 affordable housing units statewide.
The programs also have been credited with helping save Vermont's historic town centers by investing in and restoring aging buildings and preventing urban sprawl from eating up farmland and wildlife habitat. Business leaders support the program because it helps ensure that their employees can afford to live near their jobs.
The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board provides grants, loans and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, towns and state agencies for the development of perpetually affordable housing and for the conservation of important agricultural land, recreational land, natural areas and historic properties in Vermont.
The Champlain Housing Trust develops permanently affordable housing and provides low-interest loans to repair existing homes. The success of the Vermont programs spurred Sanders to begin pushing the idea of a national trust fund seven years ago, when he was still in the House. Meanwhile, more than 240 affordable housing trust funds have started up in communities throughout the nation. "This is an example of how something that started in one small city has caught on all over the country," Sanders said. "That's huge."
Welch said congressional leaders were able to overcome the Bush administration's past opposition to funding the program by attaching it to a federal effort to prop up troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The fund will be paid for with annual contributions made by the two companies. The amount will be based on a percentage of each company's annual new business.
Source: BurlingtonFreePress.com