Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: That was No.

[Sharon Scott]: But we are live. That's.

[Gus Seelig]: It got so his concern.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Oh, yeah. Yeah. No. Back about it. Mhmm.

[Gus Seelig]: Because that was the only

[Andrew Perchlik]: real reason. Okay. We're live. Tuesday, March 31, we're going through budget for the last week of budget presentations today with BHCV from the Housing Conservation Board. I'll let you introduce yourselves and provide any information or presentation you may need.

[Gus Seelig]: Okay. For the record, I'm Gus Seelig. I'm the director for the Rob Hazel and Conservation Board. And good evening is Polly Major, who's our Policy Director, who will present today. I'm about to get the presentation up. We're here to do three things. One is to report on the work we've been doing. You've received electronically this annual report, along with one from the Farm and Forest Liability Program. If anybody's old school must need, prefers a hard copy, they're available.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Do you have them with you or they're available?

[Gus Seelig]: I don't don't have them

[Andrew Perchlik]: for everybody. If we'd like one of the farm floors. Okay.

[Gus Seelig]: Anybody else wants to let me know. I'm happy to provide.

[Andrew Perchlik]: I've already got mine.

[Gus Seelig]: Yes, you do. We're here to discuss also the FY '27 budget. And finally, we're here because usually you have slots to help us improve our programs. And you know, your constituents, I mean, as well as anybody. I'm going to begin the presentation. And then probably going to give you some data about also special supportive housing work we're doing, but we're getting product presentation in Rochester, Vermont. And you may have heard a news report back in February that we and the Vermont Land Trust helped Vermont Adaptive close on a piece of land that will give them their first permanent headquarters. And if you don't know about Vermont Adaptive, what the picture indicates is they work with people who have mobility issues to enjoy the outdoors, their services, the veterans wherever they may come from are free. They have programs both close to Killington and up in the Wagefield area. So being located in Rochester is a great place for them to have headquarters. There's 150 or so acres of conserved land and an 18 acre campus. And we often claim our conservation work as rural community development. So this is going to bring jobs to Rochester. In the various times a year, they're going to build housing in terms of may have as many as 28 terms at some point on the site using the facilities in Rochester stores and so forth.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Vermont adaptive does the skiing and the mountain

[Gus Seelig]: bike? One organization. Yeah. So this is about our mission, which is housing and conservation. And in our strategic plan this year, are leaning into the end in our mission. And here we're at in Morristown, where the Stowland Trust wanted to buy a chunk of land to protect the Lamoille River and all kinds of biodiversity features. And it came with eight vacation rentals. And for the very first time, we're converting vacation homes into year round homes. They formed a partnership for Downstreet Housing, which has taken on and merged with the Lamoille Housing Partnership. The first two buyers are both single moms with kids, one is a mental health professional, and the other is a teacher at People's Academy. Where is that? I'm gonna get you the exact location, but it's in Morristown.

[Andrew Perchlik]: The

[Gus Seelig]: Stagecoat Room? I'm not sure of the address. This is our budget. This is what the governor recommended. It's what the other body has in their budget. And, the capital bill we assume will have the governor's recommend which is the clean water appropriation and only use the projects that have clean water elements to them.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Did the house, has the house finished the capital that are

[Gus Seelig]: kept with they have not finished that yet. So that could change but the balance of the budget. Certainly we had a friendly reception in there. Again, it's the governor's recommendation that we're presenting to you today. The two pictures here one is an elderly development that opened a couple years ago in South Hero and not only did it provide elders with housing, but it helped to form more much more of a village center off of route to because the fire station health center, and I believe a library are all in close proximity. And I know your friend and former colleague, Senator Lamoille District was just thrilled with any of the opening. It's the sort of place that any of us would be happy to have a relevant retiring.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Yeah, that's a well photographed project. And then back to property tax treatment, that's the

[Gus Seelig]: full statutory Full statutory amount, yes. And where's Camp Dream? Camp Dream is in Fletcher. And the story here is that we have had thirty years in AmeriCorps program for young people who do community service. A number of the graduates of that program are alums of the program said after their experience, we want to set up a mentoring program at affordable housing sites all over the state. And they did that. About fifteen years ago, they came to us because they wanted to create a summer camp experience for the kids they were mentoring. We help them get some land and pleasure last year, we helped them buy an island on that body of water.

[Andrew Perchlik]: On MacKapon?

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: MacKapon? Yep.

[Gus Seelig]: Okay. Well, so there's only two islands. So Well, they got one. Okay.

[Andrew Perchlik]: The one with a structure on it, I take it. Actually both had a structure on them, one was falling down.

[Gus Seelig]: You know one of the problems with coming and testifying, you know more about your communities than I ever lived. So

[Andrew Perchlik]: Well, the Allen family owned one island and the other

[Gus Seelig]: island we always swam to and had parties when they weren't there.

[Andrew Perchlik]: We own the camp, but we own the camp that works right

[Gus Seelig]: out of that. Senator Westman last year coached me to talk about places that were not represented in this committee room. And so in Bennington, Newport, these are former schools that have been vacant for thirty years in Bennington were under construction for 32 apartments, half of which will be affordable, half of which will be market rate. The first phase at Sacred Park, which is a condiment and a new building are going to be occupied this spring, the school will break ground to get under construction for 30 more apartments this summer. And there'll be a phase three at some point there. But this is emblematic of the work that we do in terms of trying to do things that will be catalytic for community transformational for act to transform assets that are really been sitting there dead. When I talked to Senator Ingalls about this, he said that he'd taken many of his real estate clients through Sacred Heart, and nobody could ever make the numbers work. He said, Now I understand your role when there's a market failure. That's where you come in to try to make a difference. So I think people in Newport are quite excited about this and Bennington, the voters or the City Council gave $3,000,000 of local funds to get this thing back on the tax rules. 3,000,000. Okay, so yeah, for local community. These are the big numbers for what we've done. We've been super supportive, as have your predecessors for our work since the pandemic began, the decade began in 2020. On the left is really focused on what I would consider to be the workforce. And on the right is supportive housing of a variety of different types and colleagues. So I'd ask you to take that away from this slide. Second, for every dollar you gave us, we have raised $2 and third, cost of a new home is 500 to $600,000 and that's true. What we do is to leverage the investment that you give us by bringing other dollars to the table. So our average investment across all of this has been about $80,000 For new construction and substantial rehab, it's probably twice that. And we have some lower cost projects we try to do. We've done probably a dozen hotel conversions to housing as part of the ways that we've tried to control costs.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Yeah, just wonder if you could identify under the recovery residence for projects, which counties you're built, sir.

[Gus Seelig]: There are two in Bennington. There's one at Fort Ethan Allen, it's on the Essex line. There's another one in Barrie City. Far, we've been in touch with the director of the Mountain Foundation for Recovery and their plans for more. And we look forward to doing more with that. I think it's really, all of our housing providers see problems from the opioid epidemics in terms of housing management. We just need to get on top of this in summary. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over for the next few slides. So

[Polly Major]: expanding housing for Vermonters with developmental disabilities has been one area that the HCD has really heard the direction of this body. And as you've asked us to focus on how to expand housing for this vulnerable population, and also heard advocates as they've talked about this need. We've worked especially closely with the Developmental Disabilities Housing Initiative, a

[Beth Mouth]: group of parents who are

[Polly Major]: advocating for homes for their adult children, and the Land Access and Opportunity Board that's helped bring focus to this area. And our history in working in this housing has really gone back

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: to the closure of Grand Isle

[Polly Major]: Training School. And Gus might correct me that it's gone back even further than that. But more recently, I believe twenty twenty two, the legislature passed Act 186, which created planning grants for three projects around state to say, how might we go about expanding housing for Vermonters with intellectual and developmental disabilities? And we've seen great success come out of that initiative. It resulted in three projects that came forward to Vermont Housing Conservation Board seeking capital dollars to build out those projects and received funding from the board. And so they were built. You're seeing two of them here. St.

[Beth Mouth]: Paul Street in Darlington is 10 homes that also has on-site housing for support that a renovation or new construction? Mostly

[Gus Seelig]: renovation. There may be some new construction here.

[Andrew Perchlik]: That hasn't started. This looks like an artist's renovation.

[Gus Seelig]: This one is just beginning. The one in Moncton is complete, and they're asking us for funding now for a second building, and they have a plan to build out four or five buildings. On that same property? Yes. Okay.

[Polly Major]: And so the one in Moncton is a therapeutic community that are independent living, support members of the community and members with intellectual and developmental disabilities live together in this community. And there's additional projects in Randolph and Waterbury. And we've seen two more come forward from Harper and Brattleboro. So what we saw is both testing different living models. We've seen these three pilot projects seed other projects around state, bring other projects forward to the HCV. We've seen the creation of 37 homes. We know that just to start, there was a legislatively chartered report last year that identified that there's 600 homes needed, and we're certainly seeing communities come forward with additional project ideas looking for VHCV support. And to the extent that we have funding to do so, we'll want to continue to partner closely with this community just because of the impact it really has.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: Zooming back out and getting

[Polly Major]: to that question of leverage, we want to share this analysis that we did with you because it really tells a story about what the state appropriated dollars that you appropriate do in housing across these housing types. So what you're looking at here is a selection of housing projects that the HCB has helped to fund, and the bars represent the total per unit cost in these different projects. And I've grouped them in different housing types. So you'd see shelter, hallway, through home ownership. The bar that's probably most interesting to this committee

[Beth Mouth]: is that deep blue color, because those are

[Polly Major]: the state dollars that you appropriate. And what this is telling you is that these dollars fund all of the projects in certain project types, and they fund part of the projects in other project types. So what we're seeing here, as we're thinking about housing investment strategy, is that when we're working on bringing shelter beds online, the amount of state dollars we're putting towards the shelter bed is roughly equivalent to the amount of state dollars that we're putting into a unit of new rental housing. Now new rental housing, you see that total project cost is high, but that most expensive projects we funded at Bennington High School redevelopment, which also received a special appropriation last year in the budget, is up over $600,000 But the majority of that is being covered by other leverage. And most of that is gonna be the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, a federal source that brings private equity investment into housing in Vermont. So when we're putting state dollars into the production of new housing, what we're really doing with those dollars is covering only a fraction of the cost of what it takes to bring a unit online, and we're getting additional investment coming into the state to build out the rest of the project.

[Andrew Perchlik]: So these are just examples of this

[Gus Seelig]: timeframe in these projects?

[Polly Major]: So these projects are all in the last couple of years, and they're chosen just as kind of representative of the different project types. But as Gus talks to, our average investment is much smaller than that total cost. That's what you're seeing here. And so we're thinking about where do we put dollars when we're investing in housing. It's both where can we leverage funds? Where are we responding to urgent need like shelter? And I think important above all is having flexibility to respond to the real estate opportunities that communities are bringing forward to the HCV. Because housing is expensive and public dollars are precious, we really see that permanent affordability is a really important housing policy in the state of Vermont. Homeownership is one of the places that we see that most strongly. So when BHCV invests in homeownership, we do it through something called a shared equity model, where the owners of the home, the purchasers of the home, agree to share a portion of the accrued equity upon sale with the future buyers. So what we were doing is instead of putting a dollar kind of into a revolving loan fund that might the dollar might lose value over time, we're investing that dollar within the real estate asset itself that is appreciating and using a legal mechanism that allows that investment to be passed on to the next homeowner. While this is something that's done nationally, we have national studies, we wanted to take a look at what has been the experience here in Vermont success of this program. So we took a look at the last 55 resales of shared equity homes. So we've done put dollars into these homes in the past. Where are they now? Who are they serving? And we found some some interesting results that I

[Beth Mouth]: can share with you.

[Polly Major]: First is that 16% of the new purchasers were BIPOC homeowners. And as we're really looking at how do we close the racial housing gap here in Vermont, With shared equity, we're seeing a program that is really helping this population get into home ownership at a rate much higher than the conventional mortgage market. We're also seeing that growth in the investment. So the average investment into each of these homes for VHCBs part was about 27,000. And that over time, that grew to an average investment in that equity of $16,036,000. And what that does is that's not new investment we're putting in. That's just the growth in the equity of the home. And what that means that is that these homes can be sold at a much lower rate to the next buyer. So the average cost of these homes to the buyer is about $170,000 which in this market is highly affordable. And we're seeing that reflected in the income profile of the homeowners that are coming in with that income being about $83,000 And what that means is to really serving the workforce. We also took a look at what professions are represented within this portfolio of homes. And we

[Beth Mouth]: saw that it's one of those pictured here,

[Polly Major]: the chef at Shelburne Farms. We're seeing hospitality as a really big sector that served through this, but also healthcare, teachers and social services were some of the really common professions of shared equity home. We started Housing created through the HCP's investment in serving the workforce, not just in home ownership, but also in the grantable housing. So what you're seeing here is we typically use area median income as our affordability thresholds. And you're seeing for rental housing, a lot of the thresholds are set around 60% area median income, because that's the limit of the federal tax credit program. So for a three person household, maybe a single parent with two kids, that's about 60,000, that's the statewide threshold. And for a single person, that's about 46,000. And when we look at the professions whose average wage is within the range

[Beth Mouth]: to qualify them to live

[Polly Major]: in BHCV supported affordable housing, you see all of these professions here, from childcare workers to nursing assistants, truck drivers, etcetera. And earlier this session, Data Technologies was testifying in front of the Economic Development Committee, and they said that they're planning to have a big expansion. They're planning to hire about a tech a week for the next two years, an average salary between 50 and 60,000. In Chittenden County, that per puts that person at 60% area median income, qualifies them to live in affordable housing.

[Beth Mouth]: So this new growing workforce is gonna

[Polly Major]: be seeking homes to the extent they're available within the affordable housing portfolio. And we're really seeing developers respond to that need. So the picture here, that hasn't been built yet, hasn't even come to BHCDs, in front of BHCDs board yet. We're still underwriting the proposal, but it's the development in the South End Of Burlington at the Hula site where they're hoping to build out affordable housing as part of a larger development.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Yeah. All these buildings are just like that.

[Gus Seelig]: They're in addition to existing buildings. There's This is all new construction.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Just the hula.

[Gus Seelig]: It'll be a 204 unit development with 67 homes and 40 units.

[Beth Mouth]: What street is the sign? Where is it?

[Gus Seelig]: I'm not sure of the street. It's in the South End where they've rezoned. Oh, okay.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Yeah.

[Beth Mouth]: Think.

[Polly Major]: To couch this within Vermont's broader housing strategy, the housing needs assessment says that we need roughly 30,000 homes by the end of this decade. And BHFA took a step further and said, how many homes do we need to have affordable to the Vermont population? Kind of taking into account the purchasing power

[Andrew Perchlik]: of the

[Polly Major]: Vermont population as we're building this housing. And what they found was about, for rental, about three quarters of the homes need to be affordable at or below 120% AMI, with the bulk of those below 80% AMI, and then home ownership about half. These are homes that it's really a market gap. The market has a hard time building homes to that level of affordability and you need the subsidy in order to really meet the state's housing goals and housing targets.

[Beth Mouth]: In the back, will

[Polly Major]: almost turn it back over to guests. And we know the consequences of not having housing that is affordable to our population. So VHCb has helped to serve Vermonters experiencing homelessness by investing in nearly every permanent shelter around the state. In the last ten years, we've helped double the shelter size, increasing the number of beds to over 600 by increasing it by about 300 beds. And that was with a total investment of about $50,000,000 since 2020. And most of that investment has been directly through the HDD in the past year. AHS receiving the preparation for housing for shelter and the past BHCB to administer that new projects like SRAMPA and Barrett.

[Gus Seelig]: Okay, so what this slide is talking about is how we are providing affordable housing, and making some of that available to people who would experience being unhoused. You asked in legislation a couple of years ago, for us to make 30% of the apartments that became available, not just new units, but existing portfolio of people who are on house and we actually hit 36% median, 36% of that turnover rate. So we've made a major contribution to lowering the pressures on the GA program. The one that pictured here is a new resident at Reed Commons in St. Albans. It is a 33 unit elder development. It's among 150 apartments we've built in the with partners in the TIF District there. There's a total of two seventy. So when I talk about catalytic impact, our investments help other investment come into the TIF District. This woman worked in healthcare for her entire career and do it herself as somebody who'd served before Franklin County for many years on house and is now a permanent resident. Want to assure you because it goes slowly to go from receiving the project to getting the financing and the permitting, then there's plenty more that is going to happen. So in Rotterdam, in Waterbury, Burlington, in Littlebury, these are all projects that are going to open in the next few months. There's another project in Courtney, I mentioned earlier that first phase in Newport is open this spring as well. So there's lots going on. The site for those of us old enough to remember in Waterbury was the home of Rusty Parker who some of you know is a morning guy and main energy at WDV for many, many years. And it's right across from the park and now Main Street. I'm going to spend just a couple minutes as we wrap up on other parts of our mission. Last fall, I got to Walcott and more than 100 people turned out for an opening of a seven fifty acre town of Forest right adjacent to the elementary school. Lots of people were there with their bikes. This site connects with the Memorial Valley Rail Trail. So there's gonna be an opportunity to get off the trail and have a different experience in the hills. It will also function as a science lab for kids at school. So lots of great benefits from a project like this. And we're seeing more of these community kind of forest projects come all the time. Farmland conservation, the key point I'll leave for you today is that for every year, have a $5,000,000 matching grant from NRCS. So for every dollar we put into development rights, we are getting it matched by the feds and we continue to be appreciative of that. Despite all the changes in Washington, the farmers here include a new farm structure, which is more of a co op in Jericho or cooperative ownership between three different operations. And Rosalie Williams is somebody who inherited a farm and has been very community minded over in Bakersfield Park, Franklin County. We have a farm and forest liability program that is we spend about $2,000,000 transfer tax revenue on each year. They raise additional fundings from various federal sources. Beyond us, the fellow up top uses black locust to mill for work. He's doing great work in Putney, the fellow below is somewhat of somebody who VLT took who had started an accident program, farm in Colchester for many years and about a year ago got ownership of it. And the program primarily does session planning, helping people search for land and get access to it. And lots of financial management skill building and getting great business results. If Senator Starwood here, he would tell you that he helped initiate the rural economic development initiative and urged us to take it on. And from a cost benefit ratio we've spent since 2017 $1,200,000 and help communities with $35,000,000 in various kinds of grants. That included the refitting of the old Scrabble Pack in Fairfax, Roundup Maple, Bridgewater, we worked on various foods and daycare center, helping them win grants. And that's happening all over the state, number of communities apply for disaster recovery grants this last year that they would not have had the capacity to compete with on their own. Flood recovery continues to be a big part of our work with Greg Grand on this building 31 apartments in Barry this summer. And last year, we opened a new little park that was once the site is for Sassimo lumber in Brattleboro, where a berm was removed, you can see housing around around the park, it's about 12 acres altogether. A lot of bills taken out and it's going to make it make all of downtown safer. There's another investment similar to this over in West Brattleboro, and that'll be a growing part of our and that should say flood recovery not food. This is our sources and uses budget. I'm not going to linger on this slide, but it shows you the variety of different sources that we are managing and bringing to the table in addition to the private equity that gets leveraged through the tax credit program that does not show up in our budget. I should say because LAOB will be in here in another half hour that they are we provide administrative support to them. We're very supportive of the work they're doing. Their staff shows up as VHCB employees within our budget, but their board makes the decisions on how they spend their funds. So the growth in our budget, our operating budget is because When you

[Andrew Perchlik]: say you provided, you can charge them for it or you?

[Gus Seelig]: They do pay for some of the services that we get from, yes. To speak to the pipeline, two things, one is that there's plenty of pipeline still but it has diminished a little bit And the reason it's diminished isn't because the need has gone down. It's because if you're a housing developer, and you don't think your projects can get funded in the next year or two, you're not going to spend money on options, option agreements, architecture, engineering, when the problem you don't know that your project will be successful. So when the money was flowing, pipeline was larger, as everybody reads the news and knows that the challenges you're facing with state budget, We're telling them we expect to have less resources in the coming year and pipelines come down still well more than we can meet in a given year. Whether it be one time money, we've shown you we can spend it. We know that that's rare occasion this year and next. And the map you're looking at here just to imagine the issue of available pipeline behind the federal Building, which the Moncler Commission on Resilience is trying to get site control over his parking lot. And they've done some initial assessment and that parking lot could contain us up to 70 units of rental housing. In Brownellboro, the Austin School, there's a great site for several 100 units of housing. At the Plumman Block in Bennington, there's a site that's under option for another 30 units. In Hinesburg today, we'll break ground I think next fall on a site that was donated by energy systems. So there are lots of opportunities and the more that you can provide resources, I think the more we will spark people's imagination. That's the site that is their old building? Did they donate their old regional building? They didn't donate their building. They both donated land in front of their building. Because

[Andrew Perchlik]: I thought maybe they still own that old building. It was more like a warehouse. That I'm not Okay. So so you could build housing on that land that's Yes. Road?

[Gus Seelig]: That's correct. With that, I think we've used the time we allotted to us. And we really appreciate your help, your support. And and your questions.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Okay, Senator. Okay, I got this burning question. I look at you had mentioned 30,000 units or 30,000 houses in the next decade. The United States census only shows Vermont going up by 10,000. We lost 1,800 according to what I read in the papers. Our births are down. Certainly, our demographics in Vermont are one in three or one in five over the age 60. Are we losing our houses or what's who's going into these houses?

[Gus Seelig]: That's a great question. And what I'm gonna tell you is that the Housing Finance Agency prepared a needs assessment. And they prepared it using all kinds of data. And when they prepared it, we had been through a boom, at least a mini boom from the pandemic that saw people coming. We are the Department of Housing and Community Development will tell you that we do lose housing every year, some of it to disrepair. The whole purpose of the program is to encourage people to bring housing back on the market that landlords have gotten tired of working on and renting in the past and disengaged from. We lose housing to Airbnb as another place that we lose housing. So I think you're at is the need actually 30,000? Or is it going to be a little less than that? I can't. I'm not a social scientist who can give you the

[Andrew Perchlik]: precise ring a crystal ball.

[Gus Seelig]: What I can say is that when you look at what market rate housing is going for around the state, which is apartments above 2,000 a month 2,500 a month that working for modern day squeezed out. You know, whether you make $60,000 as a young elementary school teacher, there's lots of people who having trouble in the housing market, because we do not have enough time. I hope with the work that you've done with us, we're going to see some improvement in that if the economy softens enough, we still have a couple 1,000 people that are in the state that are housed. Real estate professionals, academics who study to stay healthy, healthy vacancy rate, rental housing would be 5%. And we don't, we don't, we're not near that in most of the states. So I think there's still a shortage. At some point, it ought to be alleviated. And you're right, if the trend continues to be that we have more people leave the state, which we've seen for one year. That will help. But but I think at this moment, we still have a housing shortage. We're not having any units in place.

[Andrew Perchlik]: And is this updated every year? Is that just a projection?

[Gus Seelig]: Every five years. Every five years. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? We still have the oldest housing stock in the country. Isn't that true? That is true. Yes. And and so with that, you know, when we began the program, when you helped begin senator, a big part of our work was not to build new housing, it was to get housing out of the speculative market and fix it up to a decent standard. And so, you know, I think about, you know, the housing in Morristown above the post office, or the redevelopment of the author's block into housing, are examples of old buildings that needed a lot of work to be habitable.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Glad to see you get

[Gus Seelig]: the full statutory allotment in the Governor's budget. We are grateful for that. And we've had a long partnership with the Governor going back to the Housing Revenue Bond through his support of the large appropriations that we were able to make during the pandemic. So we appreciate it very much.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Thanks for your work unless there's any last comments you want to make.

[Gus Seelig]: Thank you again and you know where to find us if another question pops up. Come back or find you offline. Okay, great. Thank you.

[Beth Mouth]: Okay. Sounds good.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Yes. Chancellor, welcome.

[Beth Mouth]: Hello, thank you for having me, I appreciate it.

[Andrew Perchlik]: I'll let you introduce yourself and the presentation.

[Beth Mouth]: Thank you. I'm Beth Mouth, I'm the chancellor of the Vermont Psychologist System. And I wanna just thank all of you for having us here today. It's exciting to be back and seeing everybody. I I always like to ground us in our mission, which is for the benefit of Vermont. And what that means to me is that, as a system, we have to ensure that we are serving Vermont and Vermonters, and that we really need to be that trusted source for folks, as they need higher ed, as a need for higher ed ebbs and flows throughout their lives. One of the important things that I I always like to talk about is the demographics of our students. So, first of all, the two institutions for the Vermont State College System, that's Vermont State University and the Community College of Vermont. Overall, we are 83% Vermonters. So we really do serve Vermont. Our enrollment head count was up this last year. And just to know, that was 1.4 up, but our online enrollment was up by 10%. And I think that this is really showing that the students that we have really are looking for more and different options as they are trying to access higher education.

[Andrew Perchlik]: And what is the number in total? What's your enrollment?

[Beth Mouth]: For this last year, actually the FTE enrollment was about 6,300 overall. I can't give you exact

[Gus Seelig]: number though.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Okay, I was just wondering.

[Beth Mouth]: And so really this leads me into the demographics of what we have. So what we know is we're talking into the last person. Vermonters are older than they used to be. And what that has meant is that our students at Vermont State University are also older than you might expect. So typically when I talk about college kids, everybody's thinking, I always think we're all thinking 19. But for us, as Vermont has aged, so is our students. And for us right now, the average age of one of our part time students is actually 29. And even with our full time students, it's around 23. So students are a little bit older than we're thinking. And what that means is that their needs are different, meaning they are looking for more flexible options. They're looking to take courses online. They are coming back to college after they've already had a career or in the middle of one. And what that means is that we really have to think about wrapping college around their lives as opposed to what we usually think about, which is really wrapping our lives around college. And what that has meant is that some of the pieces that we have to be looking at are a little bit different. So another thing that we are really excited about is the communities that we are in. So for Vermont State University, we live in five communities in Hassleton, Randolph, Williston, Johnson, and Linden. And then we have 10 centers throughout the state at at the Community College of Vermont.

[Andrew Perchlik]: What You mentioned satellite campuses, is that that's not

[Polly Major]: community college?

[Beth Mouth]: Satellite campuses typically mean a place where students might go just to take a course or two. So,

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: and I won't be able

[Beth Mouth]: to think of any situation for a second, but if we just

[Andrew Perchlik]: need space that you're renting somewhere.

[Beth Mouth]: There's a space that

[Sharon Scott]: we have where where student might need.

[Beth Mouth]: So a nursing program that might just need one course in in a certain area. Right. So some of the projects that we've been doing again, as our students have aged, what we

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: know is that they're trying to

[Beth Mouth]: access college a little bit differently. Really, that has meant is that our college campuses in particular have to really continue to develop as our students are developing and growing. So we have been really looking at working with the communities with where these college campuses are to see how it is we can meet the needs of the college campuses, but also then how we can meet the needs of the surrounding communities. So the first place that I'd like to talk about is our Johnson campus, where we have really a lot of the most activity. There was a congressionally directed spending grant from senator Sanders several years ago for what is now a down street partnership to take over the McClellan Building on the Johnson campus and turn that into senior housing. So that has they received the disaster relief grant and so that project is now moving forward. Also on the Johnson campus, we're actively working with the Johnson Health Center to put health the health center that is currently down in the flood plain up on our campus. These are just two examples. There are actually many, but I'm just focusing on these two examples in particular, especially as we are also looking to add a site for nursing at Johnson. Just think about how this will change the college campus. So looking at, okay, we have senior housing, we have a health center, we have a nursing facility. How is it that our students then will have a more robust campus, but will also potentially have opportunities for internships or opportunities to, well, go to a health center themselves? And so really thinking about that differently. And so we are thinking that this will be our example of really looking at how we're going to take these campuses and have be out, and have them be really centered for our communities. Another example that was recently in the newspaper was the Harvey Building on the Linden Campus. We have been working with the King and East Supervisory District to have their administrative offices put in that building. We worked with them for a while, they were looking for a new home, and we're very excited about that partnership. It will have a lot more vitality on Lyndon Campus, and it will also allow us to have school students and their families come to our campus a little bit more so that we have that better connection with them. So we're very excited about that development. In addition, back on the Johnson Campus, we have been looking at an apartment complex where we could put housing on one of our parking lots. And that housing idea would be was for these students who have different needs, who are now older and have different needs for housing, put them in this apartment complex, and then have that also add to the vitality of the Johnson campus. Just some things that

[Polly Major]: we're excited about working with our communities.

[Beth Mouth]: But in addition, what we know is that we wanna be one of the workforce drivers in the state. And so we work with a number of businesses to see what their needs will be in the future. So we have a career pathway entry program that is through the Community College of Vermont. Right now, we're working with 21 employers. And that program is really designed to get folks who might not have all of the skills necessary for a career to get them skilled up and have an apprenticeship as they're doing that program and some several smaller apprenticeships. In addition, the enrollment at our plumbing and electrical programs has been up significantly over the last couple of years.

[Gus Seelig]: Do you offer those in multiple locations or just one location?

[Beth Mouth]: The plumbing and electrical apprenticeship is really interesting in that most of the coursework is done online. And then what the students do is the where where they're doing their apprenticeship is where they're actually getting their hands on learning. It's an example of some of the future of what we're we're hoping to look for. As a matter of fact, we just recently found a more congressional directed spending from senator Welch to start a composites program, and we're gonna be doing this in collaboration with Beta. Again, probably most of the coursework will be done online, but Beta is looking to partner with us to have the actual lab work done on their campus. This is really important because what beta tells us is that they have a need for for Vermonters to be trained up in working with composites who might have other skills but haven't quite gotten those skills. And we can do something with a credential that's maybe somewhere between twelve and thirty one credits, which will get people into jobs quicker. So we're really Composite or composite? Well, composite. No. So typically just composites made up of, yeah, different kinds of materials that yeah. I guess it it usually looks like plastic. Okay. Yeah. And then Senator Welch also gave us some more congressionally directed spending for our rural healthcare initiatives. So one of the challenges that we know is that in some of our rural communities, which are quite small, it's difficult to get enough nurses or enough of healthcare workers to take a class all at the same time. So this allows us to both have the coursework still take place at the same time when we're looking for how it is we can deliver some of these courses in such a way that we can get good combination of students in those. Next, I'd like to talk a little bit about our budget. So our original budget was a request for $54,042,753 which the governor did recommend. The second one I'd like to talk about though is that we are no longer requesting bridge funding. So FY '27 will be the first year that the Vermont Ecology System is not requesting bridge funding from the legislature. We wanna say

[Polly Major]: a great big thank you that

[Gus Seelig]: really That

[Andrew Perchlik]: was five years. Is that what I

[Beth Mouth]: This five year. They were we're the end of the five year already with FY '26. We're really excited about this. One of the things we always knew was that Vermont State University would probably have a small deficit in FY '27, but because of the sound financial investments that we have made in the system, we will be able to self bridge that last Great. Deficit. So we're really excited. And again, I really wanna thank the legislature because we believed in us in the time we really needed a hand up and that really has paid off, I think, for Vermont and for Vermont or two are looking to send

[Andrew Perchlik]: Who

[Polly Major]: has been one

[Beth Mouth]: of our big champions. We have also requested some funds for micro credentials, I will talk about in minute. But that is sort of our general fund and one time budget request. On the next

[Andrew Perchlik]: Did you just say you were gonna talk more about that?

[Beth Mouth]: I'll talk about yeah. In one minute, I'll talk about the micro credential. In our next on our next slide, I wanna just talk a little bit about the Allied Health and Global Commitment Fund. So this is a fund that the legislature has given to us for many years. We typically are getting around just under $2,000,000 in total for that. We had asked for an increase this year of 4,200,000.0. We weren't given that increase, but I think it's important for folks to understand what that the allied health and global commitment request is. It is funds that come not from general fund, but come from Medicaid dollars. And they really are vital in supporting faculty positions in nursing especially, clinical instruction and student training across the nursing, radiologic science, respiratory therapy and other allied health. Acute challenge for us lies within our nursing programs. One of our challenges is that for nurses and folks who might wanna be a nursing faculty member, it's actually more financially advantageous to us to just work in a nursing position. And so if we had some of these funds, we would actually be able to increase the salary of nursing faculty and they could then potentially, first come to the Massey University to work, but also potentially be retained longer, which is one thing that we really see. So, I wanted to bring that up to you. It was not in the governor's recommend, but it is a fund that would be important to us that wouldn't come out of the general fund. And Sharon, maybe I can get you to just explain a little bit about

[Sharon Scott]: what that fund is. Sure. Those funds come

[Andrew Perchlik]: Can you just state your name for the record?

[Sharon Scott]: Sharon Scott, Chief Financial and Operating Officer for the Vermont City College for the record. And those funds do come out of global commitment dollars that are related to the Medicaid funding. So it comes as a grant. So it is part of your the big bill that comes annually. There is a general fund component that is assigned to it that that has historically helped with the match. And then the the grant funded dollars do come towards the Vermont State Colleges. We have received a pool of those funds for many, many years,

[Beth Mouth]: and they have supported our ability

[Sharon Scott]: to be able to run the nursing and allied health programs at the Vermont State Colleges, Colleges, largely at Vermont Technical College initially and now at Vermont State University. They really do underwrite our ability to be able to have the very, very small class sizes that are required for the accreditation of those particular programs. But those programs are very, very difficult to run. And right now, what we're experiencing, particularly in nursing, is a very significant issue with retention of nursing educators. It is far more lucrative despite all of the good intentions of nursing educators who want to come back into the field. When you look at what we can afford to pay for salaries, what our collective bargaining units will allow us to do, it is much more lucrative for them to go back into the profession. And that becomes an ever fulfilling cycle, which has a negative and deleterious effect on

[Beth Mouth]: our ability to be able to be successful as educators.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Agreement that the governor just they give an answer, the by the end of they just said we're tight on funds and we're not they didn't provide that explanation specifically.

[Beth Mouth]: And then our final request for this year. So we did have a capital request last year. I also just wanted to make note that we are making a capital bill request for this year once again for capital planning and pre development costs for housing. That was another one that the governor did not recommend. This would be directly to put a I do the planning for a apartment complex on the Johnson Campus, which as I said, is so important for that that institution, important for our students. There are some other ways that we would be able to, I think, really help the community if we were able to get that. Yeah. Think I

[Gus Seelig]: I worked on a project like fifteen years ago where they wanted to replace the central plant. Oh, yeah. Long time ago.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: We are we are actually, yes, replacing the central plant. And I

[Beth Mouth]: know that is underway right now. So that's exciting.

[Andrew Perchlik]: They are doing

[Beth Mouth]: We are. Yes. That project is actually underway

[Sharon Scott]: right now. We actually just signed the contract for the engineering for that particular project in the last few weeks. And so we are hoping to actually do boys and king is the selected engineering firm that we selected to work with us. And so that work will be commencing very, very shortly. We're really looking forward to actually partnering and and getting that project off the ground as quickly as we can.

[Gus Seelig]: So if you don't have

[Andrew Perchlik]: this money, how are you building the budget?

[Sharon Scott]: So this particular or this

[Andrew Perchlik]: The 3.5.

[Polly Major]: So

[Sharon Scott]: this when we look at the capital bill, you issued the capital bill in a two year tranche. So it has been issued for year one and year two. So that is already scheduled to come to us for next year. Okay. So we are anticipating. So unless there is a change

[Andrew Perchlik]: Oh, that's what it's been

[Beth Mouth]: and unless it's pulled back, we anticipate that those funds will be available to us. So unless there's a change, which always

[Sharon Scott]: can happen, we anticipate that those funds would be available to us. We obviously would make no commitments in that funding until we're a 100%.

[Andrew Perchlik]: What is the fuel source for that plan?

[Sharon Scott]: So we are right now working with Efficiency Vermont and Du Bois and King to look at what that appropriate most appropriate fuel source will be. Right now, we're estimating that the a way that we're working working with Efficiency Vermont and Boise And King, that it's very possible that instead of a single central plant that we will be looking at smaller facilities in several of our buildings, which may allow us to

[Polly Major]: be much more efficient than we

[Sharon Scott]: were before. So we're very excited about what the prospects are, and so we're looking forward.

[Gus Seelig]: Is there a chip system there now? What is there now in green?

[Beth Mouth]: It's number two fuel

[Sharon Scott]: at that particular location.

[Andrew Perchlik]: I think we looked at and maybe even did a preliminary design of chips. We

[Sharon Scott]: did do a preliminary design at 1.3 chips at that location. It was challenged by how much perceived the grade is at that

[Andrew Perchlik]: particular time. Yeah, you got to give up to the down. Okay. Yes, Senator Lamoille.

[Beth Mouth]: So on the rental housing that you have, that is year round rental housing. It's not just school year. Right. So when you have students coming back to college, it would allow them to stay on, be in a house for year round, know, and make jobs in their community and their home.

[Polly Major]: Good for a married student. Good guess. Yeah.

[Beth Mouth]: And on the next slide, just to go back to the workforce request with the micro credentials, I just wanted to bring forward one example that we're very excited about that we've been working with the agency of education. And just starting to look at how the micro credentials can work. We have been working with the agency of education to look at how those were gonna fill the 7,000 roughly teachers that we will need in the next ten years in the state of Vermont. One of the things we know is that we're gonna have to be thinking differently about teacher preparation. So this program that we've been developing with the agency of education would start at the community college of Vermont with a para educator certificate. So that would be one of the micro credentials that we were looking at. What it would enable us to do is to train folks to be paraeducators. School districts are really clamoring for highly qualified paraeducators and so this would give us that certificate. It would then allow students to stack up into an associate's degree in little studies at the Community College of Vermont, which is a direct then pathway to a bachelor's degree in education at Vermont State University. So it's a real it's been a deliberately combined program to make sure that we're meeting the needs of Vermonters. But it really would allow folks to be working in a school district while they were gathering this credential and while they were getting and working their way up to becoming a teacher. One of the things we know is that we have, you know, a number of certificates that are not permanent. And so we're really looking and hoping that this program would help us to increase those numbers as well. So the micro credential funding would really help us to bolster those first couple of years of that teacher preparation program and the paraeducator certificate with an ability to be able to fund some of the student teaching type pieces that the students would need. Next, I would like to just talk a little bit about the Freedom Immunity scholarship that is through VSAC and that is something that we are supporting. VSAC has made a request for $2,300,000 for scholarships for families whose family makes up to $80,000 a year in order for them to be able to go to college for free. We are very excited about this opportunity. One of the things that we know is that many families in Vermont when they see what a college education costs, just all of us, they'll say no before they're even thinking about it. So we can't get to teachers or educators or plumbers. And so this program will allow us to really increase the number of students who are coming to Vermont State University. It's mimicked off of the eight zero two opportunity grant that has been very successful at the Community College of Vermont. I am really excited about this in the fall, the Community College of Vermont's numbers were up, but even this spring again, their enrollment was up again. And we really are attributing it a lot to the able to opportunity grants. And then next after this, we have our flexible pathways. So there are several flexible pathways that we have in the state. One of the big ones for the Vermont State Colleges System is early college. We know there's a lot to do and there'll be a study about this, but that has really been a help to many students who are ready to go to college when they're a senior in high school. And both the Community College of Vermont and Vermont State University participate in this program. The numbers are up on the screen. And we've been very excited to see that. And to be one of those many choices that students need when they are participating you know, when they're in high school and they need options towards the end of the high school, we're really excited to see that come to fruition. We'll talk a little bit about that. And so my last slide is a picture. So this was snapped in May. Somebody said to me, this

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: looks like a fake picture, but

[Beth Mouth]: it is real. I remember this woman walking across the bringing me to get her certificate, and she had her degree, and she had her baby with her. And to me, this is why I do the job I do because we really do transform lives. And this is just one picture of many that we have. What what we are really doing is changing people's lives, and it is so important to them that it's important to them to bring their children and walk across the stage and say, this is what I'm doing, and you can do it too. And as I said, this was just one example of one person this year that did that. This is really, I get so excited when we do graduation each year to see that. Yeah, so I'm done with my presentation, but I'm happy to take any questions.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Yeah, on the micro, rural micro credentialing, is it just the education? Is that where you would use the 1,500,000 to start with or the

[Beth Mouth]: The other education program is a really good example of this. What we're looking to do is to expand it. We did get the grant from the congressional directed spending from Senator Welch. That's another example of a micro credential. So, but we got funds for that. But what we would really look to do is to develop four or five of these types of programs that paraeducator wants to be

[Polly Major]: a good example of how we would

[Andrew Perchlik]: So with the 1.5, you'd be able to do a few I don't have any other questions. Anybody else? Any other last

[Gus Seelig]: words, Ali?

[Beth Mouth]: Thank you so much for having us.

[Polly Major]: As I said, I'm very excited that we're, you know, at

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: the end of transformation, but

[Beth Mouth]: we will continue to transform. I And just really, once again, want to thank all of you. We appreciate it.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Thanks for your work there. Thank you. Land access opportunity board. Welcome. I'll let you introduce yourselves. My

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: name is. I'm one of the co directors of the Land, Excess and Opportunity Board.

[Jane Hamilton]: And I'm Jane Hamilton. I am the other co director of the Land, Excess and Opportunity Board.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: And we're so happy to be here with you today. We begin everywhere. We're loading up. We're loading up our presentation. And I'll get started with our touchstones. That way we don't waste any time. We begin everywhere we land with our touchstones. We're gonna leave them here for our friends invite them to keep up in mind during our time. Listen generously and speak our truth from our heart and mind. We make the way that we work together an example of what is possible, and we trust that we each hold a piece of the puzzle and that we need each other's pieces to understand the whole picture. So we're going to work with those touchstones in mind during our time together, and Jean's loading up our presentation, and then she's going to get right into the juicy bits, which is our FY twenty seven budget. Thank you, I'm almost there. I'm almost there. Thank you so much. Okay.

[Jane Hamilton]: Let's see. Oh, I can't share. I'm sorry.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: Oh, you should be able to. You're cohost now. Okay. Okay. There we go. Yeah. You. Of course.

[Jane Hamilton]: Okay. So those are okay. So just quick agenda check. We are going to focus on our FY '27 and particularly where are we in the appropriations, what came out of house and then, you know, plenty of room for for questions and discussion. So I think you all have seen our FY twenty seven budget before. This is obviously pretty small, but the the high, the top level is our FY twenty seven budget for us to continue with our general operations and our programming is $3,200,000 To put that into the context of where are we now, within the appropriations process, we did receive a recommendation in the governor's recommend, which is mirrored in house appropriations recommendation for 1,800,000.0 in base funding. That leaves us short of what we were hoping to see in base funding. We're short $104,000 and we are short on our full FY twenty seven budget of $1,500,000 So that's what we are short to make our FY '27 program impact. To be really clear, what we put into our base proposal for this year is our general operating expenses. So it's our staffing, it is our core staffing, it's our board costs, and it is our basic, you know, supplies printing mileage. It would be really, it will be hard for us to function if we do not get at a minimum this additional $104,000

[Gus Seelig]: The amount 4,000

[Jane Hamilton]: or 4 Yeah, so this is this part. So let me just slow down to say, what we proposed for FY27 base, we proposed this to DFM and we also have a real loan, is 1.784 That is really to cover our core expenses, none of our program dollars. What has been recommended by the governor and then house appropriations was the, you know, sticking with the 3% increase. That's what the 1.68 represents is a 3% increase over our FY twenty six base appropriation. What's missing is that in FY '26, we're actually operating with some carry forward money. So our FY twenty six budget is this 2.9, is really this $3,000,000 Everything that you are hearing about the LEOB doing, what we are doing right now, is a $3,000,000 budget. If all we receive is the governor's recommend, we will see a 44% decrease in our budget in FY twenty seven. Yes.

[Gus Seelig]: Did I hear you say that the House went with the governor's recommend?

[Jane Hamilton]: The House did go with the governor's recommend, one like Mayacoba, I'd like to state, is that we did not Let me see how I can say this quickly. So this, previously, we have demonstrated this chart without articulating the carry forward, what we were carrying forward. We were just kind of talking about, what did we get in FY twenty six base? You know, how does that impact to this year? Honestly, learning how base and one time operates is a new learning for us. So like, we didn't really understand that when we were talking about this, everyone was missing the fact that we are operating this year with a significant carry forward from FY twenty four and FY twenty five. That carry forward is there because the LEOB has been launching and we've been very careful not to spend money on things we didn't need to spend money on. We've been preparing to spend that money on the programs which we are now launching. That's what's evidenced here in FY '26. If we don't get 1,500,000 we will not have any project money.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: And so to give you a sense of what that is,

[Jane Hamilton]: we will not have $400,000 to put into more community resilience grants, which right now today is the due date. We received 35 letters of intent for the 300,000,000 that we have right now in FY twenty six. We have letters of intent and applications from 14 counties. These are resilience hubs to empower communities to really lead the front lines of what do they need to build resilience in their communities. If we do not get program dollars, we will not have $400,000 to put into our beginning developer seed capital fund, which we are in the process of launching. We will not have money to run our homes for all community of practice and one to one technical assistance program, which we are doing right now. We will not have money to host the land security working group and this very important community listening public engagement process of empowering the monitors to really understand what is happening with land use policy and how their voice can actually participate. So for us to be able to do the work that I hope some of you are feeling excited about the LEOB doing, we really are hopeful that you will see the value of funding our full $3,200,000 budget. But at minimum, please can look to fund this shortfall on our general operating.

[Gus Seelig]: I'm just wondering, I understand. Yeah, I can

[Jane Hamilton]: go back to the start.

[Gus Seelig]: You're saying maybe you weren't sufficiently experienced with that aspect and so you may have underplayed it. But did the house just not understand that they were taking out all of the programming money?

[Jane Hamilton]: So I think they may have understood that what we heard from Representative Stevens, who's our liaison after the vote, is the committee felt that, you know, because last year our appropriation was 1,613,000.000, they saw, oh, they're getting a 3% increase, nobody's getting increases, LAOB got a 3% increase, what was not being recognized is, this is actually a 44% decrease on our operating budget. So I don't think that that alert I don't think we articulated that at all.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: Yeah. We're still learning how to make a case. Yes. And in this case here, we didn't really understand that there

[Jane Hamilton]: was no negotiating base once we got that number. With going the So we're

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: to with you, that was the first

[Jane Hamilton]: time the LOE connected with DFM that. Or the first time we were invited into that process. And we ran a budget that acknowledged we had carried forward, and we requested an appropriation of 1.6, then being okay, this is what we need for FY '26.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: But then that set the kind

[Jane Hamilton]: of set where we are in base. Had we known that we need to request a base that

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: is reflective of our whole budget, we would have prorated.

[Jane Hamilton]: So I'd love to, if I can, know, just, I think we've showed you this slide before. We really want everyone to understand LAOB is a creation of this body that is working. It's working. We have built the foundation, the administrative foundation, the governance foundation. We are methodically listening to communities across the political spectrum, across the agencies, and really doing essentially an audit of Vermont's land use and housing policy systems and saying, where's the low hanging fruit, where are the high impact investments, and most importantly about how do we empower more Vermonters to be part of the solutions. That's what this timeline talks about. And then I'd love to hand it to you, Arnela, to talk about a more detailed level, what is actually happening in each of these programs? Sure, thank

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: What you, we're building through LEOB's programs is not abstract policy work. It's real, it's statewide pipeline of people who are ready to deliver the housing Vermont desperately needs. For example, we have our small scale developer training program. Over 200 Vermonters have already stepped up since February 2026. These are local residents, teachers, trade people, farmers, retirees who want to build small community scale housing, housing built either Monters or Vermonters. Our organization here, the LAOB, is giving them the tools to do it. With our Homes For All Redevelopment Fund, the fund unlocks community driven projects that would otherwise stall before they can even begin. We also have our beginning developer community of practice, which is pure learning and technical support for new developers to navigate a system that has historically been only accessible to a few. And then what is the system impact with these? So these programs align with and strengthen its existing state investments. We have homes for all, eight zero two homes, VHIP, CHIP. It reduces duplication and accelerates project readiness. And this is about making the whole system work better, not creating a new system. And the other will be not just limited to supporting the housing production in our state right now, because we know that housing availability is not the only barrier impacting marginal communities from accessing and staying insecure housing. So we're working to strengthen the resilience of Vermont communities, especially those that have historically lacked access to resources and influence and or have been forgotten by institutions. We have our risk community resilience grants that support local solutions designed by our community members. We have our emergency shelter grants that support system improvements and encourage shifts in care and accessibility of care in our shelter system. We awarded eight emergency winter grants statewide this season, saving lives during the coldest months. And then we have our resilience, HUB grants. Jean also referenced the 35 letters of intent from all courts and counties. Today is the day. Do we have how many? As of nine a.

[Jane Hamilton]: M, there were already seven applications in. And I don't know if any of you are grant writers, but normally grants come in at

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: 11:59. So the fact that

[Jane Hamilton]: seven came in by start of day is really a testament to

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: how much people really want this week. We've been

[Jane Hamilton]: very engaged with the grant writers over time, having availability for technical assistance, and folks are really engaged in thinking of how do we do multistate.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: So what is the system impact of these community investments? These programs break down staff silos and improve coordination between community town and state resources, And they ensure that rural towns, immigrant communities, low income residents, and people with disabilities have a seat at the

[Jane Hamilton]: table and resources to support and

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: act under priorities. I also want say lastly that the LAOB is improving governance and structural problem solving with our advisory power activities. And it's some of the most transformative work I think we're doing. These efforts are the efforts that strengthen civic engagement and ensure that people who have been excluded from decision making can shape up the system, which is the work that we were talking with you this morning about doing. I will not go into all of the different working groups because I think

[Jane Hamilton]: you did name them in the

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: big slide, you want me to go up to the There's one more there. You can see them here. Land security working group, learn rulemaking, rural technical assistance, and civic capacity building, supporting capacity to an under resourced system such as the Office of New Americans Working Group. We're also improving cross agency coordination so people with disabilities are not left behind in housing policy. We are also watching our Secure Housing Coach program. And this is what inclusive governance looks like. It's not been followed, pre presentation. It's real structural participation of our community members in creating these programs. This is why the LAOB's funding must continue. The LAOB programs, they're already working. Underfunding us now, we have found progress that Vermonters across all 14 counties have helped build. He is actively launching programs with state agencies, nonprofits, hundreds of Vermonters, and our momentum is real. Trust is growing, and cutting funding now would interrupt collaborations that are finally delivering real results. The LAMD brings voices that have been historically left out, rural residents, low income Vermonters, new Americans, scale developers, beginning small scale developers, and others rarely hold local power. And when these voices are included, the entire system becomes smarter, more responsive, and more representative. The LAOB strengthens the effectiveness of current public spending by identifying structural barriers and pushing for long term solutions. And without this work, Vermont risks falling back into short term silo expensive fixes. So our bottom line is that the NAOB is a funding the NAOB is a force multiplier. That we, it strengthens city capacity and improves state investments and accelerate community driven solutions. And removing this funding would reverse progress in partnership and leave critical gaps in Vermont's ability to address housing, land use, and resilience challenges. Thank you.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Thank you. Can you give me an example of one of the emergency winter shelter clinics? Did they Sure. Kind of things did they do?

[Jane Hamilton]: Yeah. So this work, as everything at LA will be, it's kind of a long answer because we've been working, connecting what is the on the ground solution with how do we learn and improve the whole system. And so these grants have been awarded within the context of a guide a set of guidelines that our Shelter for All Committee has developed about what does shelter look like when it is a land access opportunity. So not shelter just as like an emergency, you need a a meal or a pot today, but actually shelter as a stable ground that promotes provokes people stabilizing so that they can heal and grow and become more stable. It really can be more stable. Really happy to share those guidelines with this committee. The eight grants represent a really broad spectrum, you know, from making, like in a renovating the lighting, the light fixtures, I think we have two of those in a community, a day shelter, community resource room, and then also separately in a motel to remove overhead fluorescent lights and introduce trauma informed lighting. These grants are $25,000 So this is not solving the shelter crisis. This is really about short near term interventions that lead to better facilities, better support systems that really start building shelter as sanctuary. That's how we've been talking about it. So also, you know, resource staff people who can really, some of these grants are supporting some lost funding that was federal or otherwise that will be present all of the chaos to really support those community resource folks that are in the room. I'm trying to think of what are some of the other examples. There's a fair number of them were on shifts in the infrastructure to make the

[Gus Seelig]: infrastructure more trauma informed and supportive.

[Jane Hamilton]: We do have one shelter in, actually two, I think Bennington and Brattleboro are both to increase the available days beyond what they were awarded in their, you know, harsh weather. Right. So then

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: they would be open, not only during the city or city or school. And then

[Jane Hamilton]: just in terms of the advisory powers component of that, so we really see that now, basically everything we do, we see now as a community of practice. So we have these eight grantees, how can we pull them together to really advise and inform where are there opportunities in policy, shared resources, in strategies together, so that we can build, you know, a kind of spiraling improvement of more togetherness, less siloing, less sort of panicked, you know, regulatory Some more strategic listening. Yes, more strategic listening. Thank

[Andrew Perchlik]: you. Yes, I do have one question. I noticed I was looking at your 2024 recommendation for that state fiscal year. And then this report is that the board is recommending an appropriations of $1,200,000 to continue to work under Act 182. To acknowledge structural racism and address prevalent wealth disparities by creating new opportunities to improve access to Woodlands, farmland, and land and home ownership for Vermonters from historically marginalized disadvantaged communities who continue to face barriers to land and home ownership. And the reason that I asked this because I was just in a meeting in Room 10, and I believe you were sitting in there. And my reason for me asking this is, I don't know if you were there in support or against 01/1981. And if you if it's going to be something that may be detrimental to LAOB, my question would be why we continue funding this particular project. In fact, this is something that you do or don't support. I'm not leading you one way or the other here. This I'm

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: just curious. Yeah. Can you clarify the question? Is the question are we

[Jane Hamilton]: in support or against 181?

[Andrew Perchlik]: I'm not really asking to do you have concerns about the effects of act 181 with the LAOB is my question.

[Jane Hamilton]: Absolutely. Yes. Do you wanna answer? Okay. So

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: I I I I'm looking at

[Jane Hamilton]: the timeline because I wanted you to

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: see how many years had act

[Jane Hamilton]: one eighty one been on here, but I think we lumped it up into 2026. It has carried forward every year. So LAOB was because of LAOB's positionality and because of who we are in statute, we have been named to many of the large working groups. So we've actually been in rulemaking, which was thank goodness we were, because we could actually have a front row seat to say, how is this process going? From the absolute first meetings, we have said, wow, there are some really concerning provisions in terms of what is tier three looking like, what is the road rule looking like, especially with road rule going into effect this year without having an opportunity to really address what are the economic impacts going to be on our rural communities? What are the impacts of act 181

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: going to be on

[Jane Hamilton]: agricultural land and agricultural economies? And what are we going to do about policy making to make sure that we don't keep creating policies that keep marginalizing dissenting voices? And that's really something for me. I I just wanna hear as LAW, but I wanna speak personally as Dean Hamilton on this, that for me, this has been an incredible exercise in looking at how do dissenting voices get marginalized out of the policy making process, all the way from literal law writing to rule making to implementation. So starting in the state house, going to LERB and rule making, then what the RPCs have to deal with future land use maps, and how that trickles down. There has been not nearly enough space in this process for community members to be informed and to have voice in this process. I'm very concerned about that. And as an LAOB, I think we have been very concerned about the impact, the economic impact on our rural communities, our ag lands, and also our folks who live in town who wanna have access to food plans. What would you add to that? Because this

[Polly Major]: is a hotshot issue for us.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: Yeah. I was looking at it this time. I think it's really important for the WOP that we are not deciding who we are listening to when we're looking at matters of oppression. And in this moment in time, we call this in our language, at the LWB we

[Polly Major]: call it dangerous opportunity.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: So it is a moment in time in which we really need to be looking at how we're listening and working together, because we are at risk of marginalizing folks and hurting whole communities of people and deciding that they're not worth listening to because they're not the ones in power. And that is a big risk for our state house right now that I would advise our legislators to take so seriously and to do the best that they can to really be listening right now to our rural communities. I live in Greensboro Bend. I am someone that lives in a rural area. I see how hard my community members are working to stay afloat. I think it's really important right now that we are stopping to listen and to assess these impacts. Because when we're harming those who are most marginalized, right now, they don't have a voice, and next time we may not have a voice. And it's us, it's all of us. We need to make sure that we are listening all the time.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Thank you.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: Thank you.

[Jane Hamilton]: Is there just one like policy recommendation on 03/25 because you asked the question is, it is definitely not enough to just delay. Like there has to be some clear language in 03/25 that mandates that somebody does an economic impact assessment of these land use provisions on rural economies. Somebody has to study that, because we've been in the rule making rooms, there's no data. Nobody can present any data on how will tier three impact rural communities' economic prosperity. We have heard from the world that they, you know, they they operate at the at the direction of this body. And so if that is something that is important to you all, which I hope it is, then it is something that needs, that currently I think is missing.

[Andrew Perchlik]: I would

[Jane Hamilton]: say it's more than tier three. I think the forest blocks criterion 8c,

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: I'm pretty sure that's in 181,

[Jane Hamilton]: is also definitely question mark in terms of what are the impacts the road rule is could have some very, very impact very strong impacts on people's ability to build houses in the world community.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: I think it's really important that as many folks can they can stand in front of the impacted communities and say, I am listening to what you're saying. Right. I know this is serious. Like, if I could advise the governor right now, would be like, you should stand in front of the

[Jane Hamilton]: communities right now and take this seriously.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: This is a big deal right now. And the ways that we have shaped wealth and survival in our communities, it's all tied to home and land ownership and folks having access to be able to provide housing for their families on their land and grow food on their land. And this is the culture of Vermont. It's our agriculture, it's our family, it's our community, and all of this is tied up in this right now. Need to make sure that we're listening and taking care of one another.

[Jane Hamilton]: Senator, you have our our slideshow, but these are our these are the policy recommendations that we came into the state house with this year. And so you can see that from from day one of this session, we have been saying, we need to figure out a way to delay the rollout of one eighty one. And we really need to not just address these these rural impacts, but in tier one, do we really have the community capacity to manage tier one? I you know, this well, how are we going to provide for that? And how do we make sure that we're not creating exclusionary practices with the way tier one is designed? So there's there's there's definitely work to do on one eighty one. I'm really glad we're glad that it's happening this year. Thank you. Thank

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: you for listening.

[Andrew Perchlik]: When we're

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: here, please reach out anytime.

[Andrew Perchlik]: Yeah. Thanks for the information. Thanks for your work there, and we'll be in touch.

[Arnela (last name not stated)]: Okay. Thank you. You too.

[Andrew Perchlik]: So I'm gonna take a short break before we have feedback

[Gus Seelig]: in here.