Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Welcome everyone to house general and housing. It is 02/13/2026, Valentine's Day minus one. And a number, I'm just we have witnesses in the room, and I'm just letting them and the public know a number of people are not here because of illness, which seems to be circulating in the South. The house is sort of like kindergarten, you know? It's in a number of ways on the dirt,

[Mary E. Howard (Clerk)]: but infinite

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: possibilities, right? Minus the naps. So what we're gonna start with today, the Vermont Housing and Conservation Coalition, which is really successful, large embracing coalition, is with us. We have five witnesses today embracing our committee, and there are many people attending other committees. And then at 11AM, we have a witness on seven seventy two, which is the landlord tenant bill and bills, and some committee discussion. We will break at 11:45, not noon, at 11:45. And then after lunch, we're gonna hear from the person who's in charge of the Vermont Housing Improvement Program, for a general report. I know members have questions. This is a good chance to talk to them, and in addition to get information about their budget if you have questions, because we're going to have to respond to that as well. So, why don't we start with the Vermont Housing Conservation Coalition. Ben, you're bleeding off. Why don't you come up and share your wisdom with us after you identify yourself?

[Ben Doyle (President, Preservation Trust of Vermont)]: My name's Ben Doyle. It's really, I'm president of the Preservation Trust of Vermont. It's really nice to see you again. I was just here very recently, but I'm here today really speaking on behalf of the Vermont Housing Observation Coalition. Preservation Trust is a member of that coalition. And, you know, one of the things that I love about Vermont is that we, not literally, but we break down silos, right? And I think the relationship between land conservation, historic preservation, and housing is the brilliance of VHCV, and it's so fundamental to how we do community and economic development work in Vermont. Preservation Trust is a longtime partner of VHCV. Every time VHCV gives a preservation grant, we step in as a partner and receive a little bit of funding to steward that property or to There's a preservation easement put on those properties, and so we steward those easements, which means every year we go visit the property, ensure that it's being stewarded correctly to preserve its historic character. But more importantly than that, VHCb, I think, just such an incredible leader in the way that they bring those three legs of the school together that really in a way make rural Vermont viable. We all want the access to land, we all need affordable housing, we all want to preserve the important gathering places in Vermont that make Vermont Vermont. And so rather than have me talk about that, last time I was in this committee, maybe a week and a half ago, talked about the Village Trust Initiative, and one of our projects is in Woolca. And so instead of me talking about that, I'm really pleased to present Ms. Martin, who was the chair of Woolca Select Board, head of the Village Trust Project in Wolcott, and a former legislator who's going to speak about the project in Wolcott and how VHDD has been supported.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Before Linda, come on up. And what we're going to do is, since we didn't do it with Ben because he's so familiar that I'm sure he's tired of us by now, we're going to introduce ourselves, you, Linda, and to everybody else. You wanna start? Good morning. I'm Mary E.

[Mary E. Howard (Clerk)]: Howard. I represent Rutland City District 6. And I'm Marc Mihaly, and I represent Callis, Plainfield, and Marshfield. Ashley Bartley. I represent Fairfax Of Georgia.

[Ashley Bartley (Vice Chair)]: Leonora Dodge from Essex Town and City Of Essex Junction.

[Joseph Parsons (Member)]: Joe Parsons, Newbury, Thompson and Graham.

[Thomas "Tom" Charlton (Member)]: I'm Tom Charlton, Athens Chester, Drafton, Newfoundland.

[Mary E. Howard (Clerk)]: Mr. Drafton. Debbie Dolgin, I represent St. Johnsbury, Tom Bird and Kirby.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: And this committee is a little unusual in that we have people from literally every kind of place in the state, ranging from the most urban to the most rural. So, welcome. Tell us your name and tell us, share your wisdom with us.

[Linda Martin (Town of Wolcott; former legislator)]: Okay, for the record, my name is Linda Martin, and I am here representing the town of Wolcott. I am here today in strong support of maintaining the full base funding for the remote housing and conservation board at $37,600,000 as included in the governor's recommended 2027 budget. In a small rural town like Woolkit, VHCb is not just a funding source, it is a critical partner. Through VHCb's support and partnership, I would like to speak to the meaningful impact the housing board has had on the town of Woolkit. First, VHCb was a partner and funder in creating the Woolkit Community Forest, a major conservation and public asset project for the town. In 2024, Woolkit permanently protected seven thirty five acres of forest land within walking distance of the village center, Wolcott Elementary School, and the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. This project was done in partnership with the town of Wolcott, the Trust for Public Land, and the Northern Rivers Land Trust, with the HCB co holding the conservation easement that ensures long term protection of the land. The community forest provides close to home outdoor recreation opportunities, hiking, skiing, biking. It supports outdoor education for local students, protects significant wetlands and waterways, and improves ecological connectivity and climate resilience. Part of the conserved property is also expected to be used to support affordable housing. A small lot is being donated to Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity to help build a permanently affordable home near the forest and stool. So you can see the orange is the forest in this little section here.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Did you? Actually, could I ask you? Show us on the map where Route 15 is. Can we see it?

[Linda Martin (Town of Wolcott; former legislator)]: No. This is Group 15. Okay.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Alright.

[Linda Martin (Town of Wolcott; former legislator)]: This is the rail trail.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Yeah. Where is, like, the school?

[Linda Martin (Town of Wolcott; former legislator)]: It's the school on the pink.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Right. And the store?

[Linda Martin (Town of Wolcott; former legislator)]: The store. Well

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: I'm just trying to get my bearings. I drive by there a lot.

[Linda Martin (Town of Wolcott; former legislator)]: Right. So this is off on School Street. You won't see it for

[Mike Foote (Executive Director, The DREAM Program)]: a 150.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Right, yeah.

[Linda Martin (Town of Wolcott; former legislator)]: So, you turn on to School Street, we have our library, our town hall office here, the rail trail. See all the hiking trails that go up to the school, no hunting on this side, but hunting allowed on that side.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: And that conservation easement is done, I mean, it's recorded and

[Linda Martin (Town of Wolcott; former legislator)]: Mhmm, 2024. Congratulations. You're welcome. And we're hopefully by March 1, we'll have been able to transfer ownership of that one acre of land to Habitat for Humanity.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Do you know how many units they're planning? It's a single family Single family house, okay.

[Linda Martin (Town of Wolcott; former legislator)]: So also, in 2025, BHCB approved up to $100,000 funding for rehabilitation and restoration of the historic Wilkid Schoolhouse, a local landmark from the 1850s under its historic preservation program. This funding supports restoring the building's structure and helps maintain its historic character. The building is planned to house the community library and historical society. Without VHCb's partnership, projects like these would simply not be possible. Woolkit does not have the local tax capacity to undertake major conservation acquisitions or historic rehabilitation projects on its own. PHCB funding makes it possible for small towns to protect what matters most to them, our landscape, our history, and our future. PHCP represents a uniquely Vermont approach, balancing housing, conservation, and community development. That balanced model works. We have seen it work in Woolkit. Again, I ask that you support VHCb's full funding of $37,600,000 Thank you for your time and for your commitment to Vermont communities, and happy to answer any questions you might have.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Members of the committee, any questions for Linda Martin? Linda, congratulations. The only thing that I would add personally is having spent more time than I would like to say many decades in California in the midst of similar issues, I was an environmental lawyer, and in the housing conference, there was an annual housing conference, attended, of course, it's California, by literally 500 or more people. I was the only environmentalist in the audience. The only. The communities, the housing, the affordable housing community, the conservation community, were utterly separate and at war frequently. Do not take for granted what Linda was referring to as to the unification of these two communities in Vermont, resolving tensions and issues through conversation rather through, you know, just simply not talking to each other. I mean, it was a major accomplishment for me in California to have the confidence of the housing community enough to tell me when they introduced a bill that would be damaging to conservation, just to let me know. So this is a different world, and thank God it is. Thank you. Our next witness is Ana Mihaly. Is it Mihaly?

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: Mihaly, yes.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Yes, but with an I, so Portuguese?

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: No. Well, my family's from El Salvador. El Salvador? San Salvador.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: San Salvador. I spent two years in San Salvador.

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: Excellent.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: So tell us your name again.

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: I'm Emilie, the progressive representative who just won the primary in New Jersey. So Anna Maria Mihaly. Anna Mihaly. Am a homeowner That threw me when I saw that on the agenda. I am a home ownership specialist at Windham Housing Trust. We serve Windham and Windsor Counties in Southern Vermont. We're a proud member of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Coalition. So I'm here to speak on behalf of the coalition and really drive home the impact of the investments that BHCV pours into affordable housing. So, as I mentioned, I'm a homeownership counselor. I speak to prospective homebuyers every single day. But you don't need to be a homeownership counselor to know that affordability is increasingly out of reach for many of our sponsors. So today I want to talk about one of the programs that VHCb funds that really helps bridge that affordability gap. That is the shared equity program. So the shared equity program is available to income eligible home buyers. We can provide them sometimes up to $80,000 in document assistance. I don't have slides, I'm sorry. So if you're expecting slides, there's no slides. And there's a few different ways that you can purchase into the shared equity program. You can purchase through our new construction project. I'll talk about them shortly. You can purchase through our buyer driven option. That's been the one that's more popular in recent times. This is where someone can get preapproved to participate in our program. What we're looking for is income eligibility and that they're mortgage ready. That's where then we can provide down payment assistance, but they need to then have financing for the rest.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: That is they provide. They have to go out and get the financing.

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: And we will assist them with getting mortgage ready, introducing them to lenders that participate in our shared equity program. And then they can shop in the open market. We do have a purchase price limit, so that's the second option. And the third option is any homes that have already been brought into the shared equity program through our resale. We will list them on our website and we will identify an eligible buyer. So in exchange for the very generous down payment assistance, there is an agreement to limit profit at resale. So our program is really twofold. It's not just to allow low and moderate income Vermonters to attain homeownership, but to create permanently affordable homeownership for future generations to come. So I want to talk about one of our shared equity projects in Springfield, where we transformed a lot that had a burned down home into a zero energy three bedroom, one story home. So this home, this was a new construction. We don't do many of this because you're probably aware of the really exorbitant construction costs. The market value was $300,000 Through the shared equity program, we were able to sell it net price to the buyer for $224,000 This, I mentioned, is zero energy ready, which means that energy costs are going to be pretty affordable in the future. That's one thing that we're looking at is to make sure that not only will we be able to afford the mortgage payments, but all the other costs that are associated with homeownership. And since it's a three bedroom, one story ranch, it is very accessible, which was very key to the local couple that we sold it to. This couple first took our home buyer education class in January 2023. When we first worked with them, we had identified that they needed to build up their credit, build up savings, pay down debt in order to be able to qualify for a mortgage. So as you can imagine, it was a long journey to get there. But in January 2026, just last month, we were able to close on this home. Now, I want to be clear that obviously there's things that they could control, like paying down their debt, building up their credit score. But no matter what they did, it would still be, after three years, really out of reach to be able to purchase a home at three hundred thousand. Without the shared equity program, again, this home would have been out of reach. In 2025, we completed five shared equity purchases. Those were all actually exclusively through our buyer driven option. So again, one of the key things is that we're allowing people to shop in an open market, get a grant, and now take that off of the increasingly unaffordable market rates. And now these are now permanently affordable. And thanks to a recent innovation with the program, BHCb is now allowing us to use some of the funding to do post closing repairs, we can actually modernize and we already have that necessary for the property. So we're actually modernizing the housing stock and making these really nice homes that people can be really proud to live in. As I mentioned, the couple that we sold the home to, the new construction, not only was accessibility key, but they're also really proud that it's new construction and that it has a low carbon footprint to the energy, to the environmental aspects that we're holding in here. So, we're only in February 2026, but we have already completed two shared equity purchases this year, and we have one pending. They're actually closing on their home next week. And so, I'm just here to talk more about this program and bring home the stories, the people, the families that we're able to assist. This funding from B2B not only bridges that affordability gap, but we're also able to leverage other funding sources. So many times, the homebuyers are not only accessing our GAP payment assistance, but we're assisting them in applying for additional grants or 0% interest loans. And it also is helping people who need to stay in Vermont build connections and grow those deep roots into our communities. So, equity is not a one time benefit. It is a lasting investment and permanently affordable homeownership and the everyday families that make up our communities. So, thank you for your time and I urge you to support and fully fund BHCV at its statutory share of 37,600,000.0. Thank you. Happy to answer any questions.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Does the committee have questions of Anna? I have questions. Can't resist. Anna, I was really interested to hear you have lenders that you work with?

[Mary E. Howard (Clerk)]: Yes.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Is it, like, one, three?

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: I'm pretty proud that we have I think it's close to 10. We're consistently working to try to get more lenders who will be willing to take this off. The restriction is not on our end. It's more of like, it's going be a complicated transaction. Boston, easily we're trying to stack different document assistance programs to make it really affordable to families, which adds a lot of complexity. But we're really proud that we've been able to work with lenders. We have lenders that are willing to take on that challenge, and we're consistently going that list.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: I can imagine. I know banks often feel uncomfortable with something new. Do you have any problem? Have you had any problem with banks asserting, well, since there's limited equity on, you know, the resale price will be lower, and it means if we have to foreclose, we won't get our money. But how are your rates? I guess what I'm asking is, when you talk to a bank, and of course they have to think about foreclosure, I'm

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: not Yeah.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: When a bank forecloses on a shared equity house, is it still subject to the shared equity easement when they turn around and the bank doesn't wanna hold it, so they'll they'll sell it.

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: It is not. So the way that we structure those mortgage and, like, the lead positions, our position is always less.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: You're at second or below.

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: So those lenders will be able to try to recruit their bosses. So it's not often. We actually have, I think, one of the lowest foreclosure rates because of all the wraparound services that we can provide, mortgage assistance. Obviously monitor anyone who's falling behind on their mortgage payments, lower their tax bills, and then print your fee early on.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Let's clarify the role of the subsidy. Am I right that, let's say you have a $400,000 house, either no. Let's say it's a house that you built for 500,000 or its market value is, let's just, 500,000. But when you do the math in terms of what people can afford, you decide you're going to sell it for $300,000 Who comes up with the other $200,000

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: So, we've actually had great partnerships with DHFA with helping the missing middle development grants for the construction aspect of it. So that helps us in terms of being able to just fund the development costs. And then we won't obviously sell it at $500,000 We're selling it at 300,000

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Below correct. Does the VHC be Where does the VHC be money come in?

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: It does come in, and I apologize, I'm a little less familiar in the intricacies of all of the funding orders and all of that, but we know that we have really good support from the HCB.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: So they'll provide some of that cash differential. Questions? Any further questions of Anna? Go ahead. Well, here's our opportunity to get a

[Mary E. Howard (Clerk)]: we don't all miss it. Understand this, but what you'd say there's taxes, your property taxes. So do they assess the house at, like, you're saying $500,000 or are they assessing it at $300,000

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: Yeah, so with the shared equity program and with any property, but it's obviously split between the house site and the land. So, with the way that we operate our shared equity program, the land is owned by the housing trust, the home is owned by the shared equity home buyer. And so because it's held by the trust, there's a very favorable tax rate of the land tax portion. And many of these home buyers are lower income, so they're able to benefit from the Vermont property tax credit.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Yeah, because Vermont property taxes is income adjusted heavily. Thank you. Other questions?

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: Could I clarify something really quick? Yes. So about the subdeed,

[Mary E. Howard (Clerk)]: would you

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: If you know what you should do, you should just tell us your name for the record.

[Ana (Anna) Mihaly (Homeownership Specialist, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust)]: Oh yes, I'm Elizabeth Burrows, I am a legislative intern for representative Lamoille. I just wanted to ask on some of piece. From my understanding right now, sounds like the partnership with HFFA, for example, is about the construction with the VHCB can be mostly about the buyers themselves like them. Exactly. You very much.

[Elizabeth Burrows (Legislative intern)]: Yeah.

[Mary E. Howard (Clerk)]: That's good to hear.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Any other questions? Does any other legislator in the room have a very smart assistant who can ask questions for All right. Ana Mihaly, thank you so much. Our next witness is Mike Foote. Is Mike, are you here? Good. Please join us.

[Mike Foote (Executive Director, The DREAM Program)]: This is my slide, one of my slides, which I feel like can just speak for itself. My name is Mike Foote. I'm the executive director at the Dream Program. Good morning. Good morning, committee members. Thank you so much for having me here. This really is a great opportunity, and I I appreciate your time. I appreciate your leadership supporting organizations that are so strong to our communities, certainly like the Vermont Housing Conservation Board. The Dream Program, as I mentioned, the executive director there, it's a Vermont based nonprofit that partners with affordable housing neighborhoods to provide year round mentoring, summer programs, and outdoor experiences for youth and low income households. We work across the state. We support over 800 youth across 47 affordable housing neighborhoods and schools. I thought I should mention, in honor of Valentine's Day, I want you to know that we at Dream really do love the BHCB.

[Mary E. Howard (Clerk)]: And I'm here to share how

[Mike Foote (Executive Director, The DREAM Program)]: the BHCB's investment in our work has catalyzed significant social and economic return for Vermonters. I wanna express my strong support for continued investment in them, specifically to urge you to support full base funding at 37,600,000.0 as included in the government's recommended fiscal year twenty seven budget. So for context, a little bit about my organization. We provide year round and long term youth services for families living in affordable housing neighborhoods. Our service model is grounded in two pillars of health youth development. One, long term trust and relationships, and two, access to enriching experiences. Our program design emphasizes deep partnership with the management agencies and residents of these neighborhoods across the state. So some of our housing partners include Northwoods Apartments in White River Junction, Hollow Drive in Wilder, both managed by the Vermont State Housing Authority, Willowbrook and Beach Court Apartments in Bennington, managed by the Bennington Housing Authority, Elm Street Apartments in Winooski, managed by the Winooski Housing Authority Birchwood Mobile Home Park up in Milton and many others across the state. We're also embedded in 17 high school elementary school partnerships in almost every county in Vermont. So our partnership with BHCb began in a pretty unlikely way. We incorporated in Vermont in early 2000s with the mission of closing the opportunity gap for youth and low income households. We were run by a pretty scrappy group of recent college grads. And as our work gained momentum, we recognized the need for continuity of services across the summer months. And that's important to combat what's referred to as a summer developmental slide, which disproportionately affects kids and well-being households. So a summer camp fit the bill pretty nicely, except for the actual bill, of building one from the ground up. So we started looking for land and a pathway for acquisition. It was a group of idealistic 20 touring parcels with a very, very patient real estate agent. And then we found this hidden gem, 54 acre parcel in Fletcher with almost 1,500 feet of Metcalf Pond surrounded by working forest and nestled in the foothills of the Mesquite, at the top of the Mesquite watershed. Since we work so closely with affordable housing agencies and neighborhoods around the state, someone suggested we call the BHCB and pitch our idea of creating this environmental focused overnight adventure base for youth in affordable housing neighborhoods. So I'm gonna save you the process details, but I still remember opening that letter that told us that VHCb was going to invest and that Camp Dream would become a reality. Pideously, we opened that letter at Elm Street Apartments in Winooski, where our future first campers lived. So Camp Dream now boasts a number of opportunities. Oh, Here we are. That's our launch. A number of opportunities, hiking, swimming, boating, arts and crafts, archery, ecology programming, ropes courses, campfires, home studying, garden table activities, and a whole lot more. And we don't stop with summer. Ongoing seasonal adventures, Camp Dream's signature winter adventure camp. Imagine snow filled weekends of outdoor fun and bonding with mentors and youth, highly anticipated events for our kids. Broomball in the frozen pond, snowshoeing, introductions to cross country skiing, it's just really the best of our book. Sleeping in snow domes. More recently, we repartnered again with the VHCB to add a small island on the pond for our camp offerings to add to the wonder and adventure of our campers' experiences. This is now a canoe destination, a place to learn about pond ecology. It's nestled right in the north part of the lake, is this beautiful marsh. It's a special destination for camp traditions. What's that little structure? There it is, it came with

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: a little hut on it,

[Mike Foote (Executive Director, The DREAM Program)]: and we are turning this into the Metcalf Center for Pond Ecology. So we're gonna involve our kiddos in real research, long term data collection, looking at the coca labs out of the pond water at the North Bay. Because of the BHCB, Camp Dream has built memories, developed young minds, provided a safe outdoor space for some of the most vulnerable youth in our communities to play, learn, explore. And this has been going on for two plus decades. Research shows that overnight camp boosts self reliance, develops perseverance, grows confidence. It acts as a relationship accelerator for our mentors and youth, provides really, really important opportunities for positive risk taking. And I just wanna briefly share some details on the economic return of BHGB's investment in Camp Dream. So since we acquired that property back in 2004, Dream has raised and invested over $2,000,000 in facilities at the camp that support outdoor recreation and year round utilization. From a regional economic development perspective, we often purchase from local suppliers, such as Ellis at Forest Products down the Camp Road, which should provide much of our timber to build our cabins and other spaces. We also employ local contractors and technicians, like our carpenter, Ryan Halkwist, who lives right down

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: the street, our plumber, Dave Buschey, and a lot of others. Where is the funding? You say it's outside funding. It's not funding from BHCD. For example, where does it come from? Other places. So we do have

[Mike Foote (Executive Director, The DREAM Program)]: earned income contracts with our partner agencies. We we spend a lot of time fundraising. Grants make up about 60% of our revenue, about 25% from individuals. Vince. You're a five zero one c three? Yep. We are. So to that, you know, to that end, we invest over 3 and a half million annually in operating youth programming in Vermont. We have numerous local regional partnerships for the camp, four h, local CSAs. We're currently establishing a relationship with upstream Vermont to provide, as I mentioned, hands on ecology research experience to our kids, contribute to the long term upon data collection, which there really isn't much data being collected on this on this important space. We bring out of state funding from 5,000 plus alumni around the country, as well as federal sources, AmeriCorps grants, money from Office of Juvenile Justice. That accounts for about 2,000,000 annually. So many of these resources I'm referring to are coming from outside and are net economic gain for Vermont. We also hire 150 young people to staff our overnight camp and all of our day camps around Vermont. Some of these are in state. Some of these are being introduced to Vermont. It's a great playmaker for them. And, of course, most importantly, Camp Dream has seen thousands of Vermont kids at no cost, zero cost to their families, enabling access to life changing educational and developmental opportunities. And I also wanna mention, addition to hosting our Dreamers, we're a reliable outdoor resource for groups like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Fletcher Elementary School, lots and lots of others. So we support a number of public good organizations around the state. All of this catalyzed by that singular investment by the HCB back in 2004. So I want to just conclude by, you know, as federal supports for vulnerable kids and families become even more uncertain. I think Vermont's commitments to institutions like VHCb matter more than ever. It's not just a line item. VHCb funding isn't just a line item for us. We see it as a statement of our values. It's a way to ensure all Vermonters have both security and opportunity. Because of your commitment to VHCb and their forward thinking staff and board, they've acted as a catalyst to my organization, which has then contributed many fold back in social and economic return for our wonderful state while protecting the outdoor spaces that make our space so unique. So on behalf of the children, the families, and communities Dream serves, I wanna thank you, and I respectfully encourage you to support full based funding for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board at 37,600,000.0. Thanks Thanks so much for your time. It's been

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: really an honor to be here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next witness is Eric Fernandez from the Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports.

[Mary E. Howard (Clerk)]: I think she held up in front of

[Mike Foote (Executive Director, The DREAM Program)]: my mom.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Maybe I have the name wrong.

[Ben Doyle (President, Preservation Trust of Vermont)]: Erin.

[Marc Mihaly (Chair)]: Erin, okay, Erin Fernandez. I think what we're gonna do is begin our next Do you have any idea, Miriam, as to what Erin's situation is? Corrections, what I think we'll do is move on to our next item. Is Nadine with us yet? Yes. She's sweet. Oh, she's gonna be in person. Okay. Then we will take a break and either Erin or Nadine will be next. And if it's Nadine, then we'll have Aaron testify after that. We've gotta keep moving because we have a hard stop at 11:45.