On Wednesday, three different Committees took up housing and land use issues. The Senate focused on a new proposed Act 250 framework that would change the incentive structure and land access for housing. The House Committees covered some of this as well, but also heard from non-profits asking for more investments in permanently affordable rental housing. 

Chairman Stevens invited Alex Farrell (Commissioner, Department of Housing & Community Development) and Shaun Gilpin (Housing Division Director, Department of Housing & Community Development) to provide overviews and updates to the House General & Housing Committee on Friday.

On Tuesday, the housing bill, S.100, was moved to the House Environment & Energy Committee on the House floor.

Susan Minter (Executive Director, Capstone Community Action) shared with the House General & Housing Committee on Thursday a report by the Community Action Team reiterating that housing was needed. Minter gave a very similar presentation to the one given in the Senate regarding S.100. The same risks were identified as in the Senate the same powerful stories that demonstrated the need for more housing. 

She reiterated, again, that there was no focus on Act 250 or business issues addressed in the bill. Even so, Minter supported the bill as it was.

On Tuesday, the House General and Housing Committee did a walk through of H.276 with Legislative Counsel. The bill essentially requires landlords provide identifying information on the owner, landlord, property manager and other identifying information about the unit, location of the unit, and construction of the unit by March of next year.

The House General & Housing Committee took up H.378 on Wednesday, which would create an Office of the Housing Advocate to assist landlords, tenants, and homeowners with housing-related questions by providing information, referrals and assistance to individuals about obtaining or providing housing services.

This week the Senate Economic Development Committee reached the mark-up stage of their Omnibus Housing Bill. There was discussion in the Committee that many local governments in Vermont were unhappy with the duplex by right governing authority that is being taken away in this bill. Barre Town was particularly not pleased. The Chair tried to justify that it was not taking authority from local government but was more dealing with the homeowner. Even so, the Committee believed this was a huge change and expressed concerns.