Low Income Housing in Vermont

Low Income Housing Information

Low income housing can be a godsend, but if you don't know how to apply, or who to get your information to, how can you ever expect to be approved?

Since laws and procedure vary from state to state, you'll need to learn a few specifics before applying. We can help!

Can You Find Low Income Housing in Vermont?

As a liberal state that has a strong commitment to ensuring that all of its residents have clean and safe affordable housing, it is very easy to locate affordable housing options in Vermont. The resources range from federal and state government ones to a wide range of non-profit and charitable organizations specifically dedicated to ensuring that everyone in Vermont has a decent housing, despite their income level.

For someone relocating to Vermont and in need of some housing assistance, perhaps the first stop should be the Vermont State Housing Authority (VSHA, www.vsha.org), which is the oldest state-wide housing authority in the United States, being initially established in 1968. Beyond the basics provided by the federal government - programs like Section 8 housing - Vermont also offers a range of secondary programs, some of which are federal and others of which are state funded. The VSHA website provides a comprehensive introduction resource to the various options available in Vermont as well as the basic information required to qualify for these programs.

Although the state government's VSHA is very progressive in its efforts to provide adequate affordable housing in Vermont, it is also under near constant pressure from various non-profits specifically focused on encouraging better performance on the affordable housing front. Most of these non-profits belong to the state-wide coalition organization known as the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition (VAHC, www.vtaffordablehousing.org). This organization serves as an umbrella organization of local and regional affordable housing advocacy organizations throughout the state. The VAHC provides some resources that might be of interest to applicants for various housing subsidy programs, but its chief value is in providing a comprehensive list of local organizations throughout the state that might be more useful to people actually seeking housing assistance.

Although Vermont boasts a significant number of more specialized programs, basic federally-funded Section 8 housing remains the largest affordable housing option in the state. As such, it means that a good amount of helpful information can also be obtained from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development website: www.hud.gov. The HUD website provides a comprehensive list of all local public housing agencies (PHAs) in Vermont. So this information combined with the advocacy organizations found on the VAHC website mentioned previously, should give any new person to Vermont all the resources they need to find and successfully apply for subsidized housing in the state.

One thing that applicants should bear in mind is that the average cost of living in Vermont is higher than average, which means that the median income levels - the key metric used to determine whether or not a person qualifies for Section 8 housing and many other programs - are also higher. As a consequence of this fact, people that did not necessarily qualify for Section 8 housing in some other part of the country may well qualify in Vermont. However, since Vermont is well known for having a generous social welfare system for impoverished people, the waiting lists can be lengthy for outsiders just moving to the area. New residents should probably discuss their situation with one of the non-profit advocacy organizations before relocating to Vermont to avoid accidentally getting themselves caught without any housing at all.