Community Events & Workshops

In January 2019, Lamoille Housing Partnership co-hosted a Housing Needs Summit with Lamoille County Planning Commission and Stowe Land Trust. The Housing Solutions Summit dispersed information from the "Lamoille Housing Needs & Assessment Study," and convened a panel to discuss the opportunities and challenges to our communities' housing issues outlined in the housing landscape report.

The Housing Solutions Summit is the next step towards distilling solutions with the future goal of developing corresponding action plans. See below agenda!

HOUSING SOLUTIONS SUMMIT: AGENDA

• 8:30am – 9:00am: Registration, coffee and networking – bring your own snacks!

•  9:00am – 9:25am: Introduction

  o   Jim Lovinsky | Executive Director, Lamoille Housing Partnership

  o   Lea Kilvadyova | Regional Planner, Lamoille County Planning Commission

• 9:25am – 10:45am: Session #1 – Discussing local housing issues, brainstorming possible solutions to shift towards action. Groups will address and discuss each of the 4 topics within 20 minute cycles. For reference, see topic list and corresponding questions below:

• Improving housing stock: The “Lamoille Housing Needs & Assessment Study” identified that the Lamoille Valley has old and inefficient housing stock, a real lack of affordable rental housing, and a need for new housing for homeownership opportunities. What can we do to incentivize improving existing housing stock, development of rental housing, and providing more opportunities for home ownership?

• Reducing development costs: There was agreement among many of the Housing Needs Summit panelists that the high costs of development and construction are holding back new housing stock. What can be done locally to address these issues?

• Homeless & Evictions: Besides needing more rental housing across many parts of Lamoille communities, rising eviction rates and homelessness places a burden on local landlords and service providers alike.  What can we do to address the underlying issues in order to reduce both rising eviction rates and homelessness in our area?

• Lack of Housing: The lack of housing addressed in the study was backed up by the panel as a whole, ranging from no local homeless shelter, a lack of employee housing holding back business development, not enough senior housing to address the greying of Vermont, and young people not being upwardly mobile through homeownership. Are there public, municipal and private partnerships that can be developed to address these areas of housing need in our communities?

•  10:45am – 10:55am: Recess, stretch the legs!

•  10:55am – 11:55am: Session #2 – Sharing summarized group discussions per each topic / question (listed above)

•  11:55am – 12pm: Action items, next steps