and Xander Patterson, Hinesburg Affordable Housing Committee members
Welcome to the third installment of the Hinesburg Affordable Housing Committee’s (HAHC) exploration into causes of and solutions for our town’s crisis in housing, especially affordable housing. It is a crisis inflicting not just our town, but also our county, our state, much of the country, and very possibly you or someone you know. What can we do about it here in Hinesburg?
The State of Housing in Hinesburg
Housing is scarce. In Chittenden County the rental vacancy rate is just 1 percent. (A 4-6 percent vacancy rate balances the needs of both renters and property owners.) Homes for sale are similarly hard to find. Hence, rents and sales prices are high. Housing is considered “affordable” if it costs 30 percent or less of a household’s income, including rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance and taxes. Chittenden County’s median rent of $1,386 is “affordable” only to households earning more than $40,000 annually. That’s only half of renters in Hinesburg. The Chittenden County’s median home sale price of $435,000 is “affordable” only to households earning $140,000 or more.
Ultimately, housing costs will only come down when the housing stock goes up. But building new homes is even more expensive. Only a few years ago, new dwellings typically cost about $350,000 to build. Now they cost close to $500,000. At these costs, the market alone cannot build new housing that’s affordable without some sort of help from the public, through the government and/or nonprofits.
Partnerships Can Create and Maintain Affordable Housing
Hinesburg’s Housing Needs Assessment, newly updated and released just last June, translates what state and county new housing goals mean for Hinesburg. To meet the goals of the Building Homes Together campaign, Hinesburg would have to build about 140 new homes (35 affordable) by 2025, and about 275 by 2029. Hinesburg has several projects in the works right now that, should they reach fruition, together would meet or exceed the 2029 goal. Each relies on its own unique arrangement of partnerships between the town, nonprofit housing organizations, and private developers.
Kelley’s Field, a 55-plus community in the heart of the village, is adding 24 units, all perpetually affordable. It is managed by the nonprofits Cathedral Square and Evernorth and supported by the town with a $50,000 grant and with help securing $600,000 in state-federal funds.
Haystack Crossing, to be located west of 116 and south of Shelburne Falls Road, envisions in phase one 176 homes of various forms and sizes, 20 of them perpetually affordable. The town is working with the developer to build and maintain the water and sewer services the project will require.
Hinesburg Center II is adding 73 units, eight of them perpetually affordable, to its project behind Kinney’s. The town is giving the effort a gentle assist by allowing it to meet its open space requirements with a donation to the development of the planned Town Commons nearby.
Windy Ridge seeks to build 77 units, 60 of them perpetually affordable, east of 116 and south of CVU Road, around the NRG complex. The current plan is for 40 owner-occupied single and multi-family homes and 37 rentals. The land is being donated by a founder of NRG and managed by Champlain Housing Trust (CHT). CHT will partner with Evernorth on rentals, and Sterling Construction and Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity on the ownership units.
Public assistance comes in various forms, including letters of support to help developers secure financing, direct grants, help with infrastructure, or special dispensation in zoning requirements to cut costs and streamline permitting. HAHC also does its best to influence and support our town’s efforts to meet its housing needs, and to make sure we do so in a way that benefits the town and all of the people in it.
Stay tuned for next month’s installment of HAHC’s exploration into Hinesburg’s housing crisis. For more details, refer to the Hinesburg Housing Needs Assessment, which is available on the HAHC page on the town website.