Editor’s note: This story (and the story below) make up part three of a three-day series analyzing the housing crisis here in Windham County and all over Vermont.
BRATTLEBORO — Elizabeth Bridgewater has a one-word explanation for the housing crisis in Windham County — wages.
“It’s the wages,” she said during a recent interview in Brattleboro. “Wages are so low,” she said, “they don’t pencil out.”
The result? Low wages, plus “the extraordinary costs to build” make housing out of reach for many people, she said.
Bridgewater in reality is Windham County’s biggest landlord.
She is the executive director of the Windham Windsor Housing Trust, which oversees about 887 apartments, with most of those in Windham County and some in southern Windsor County.
The Housing Trust does a lot more than build new housing projects. It has a complex mission to provide permanent affordable housing, financial assistance, and “ongoing support and advocacy” for those who need it. The SASH (Support and Services at Home) program, for example, provides prevention, education and support services for at-risk populations.
The organization has a variety of programs designed to improve housing in southeastern Vermont, whether it is loaning money to homeowners to make key repairs to their homes, or programs that help homeowners create additional housing in their homes, as well as renting homes or apartments. Through its Shared Equity Program the Housing Trust helps people buy homes by offering down payment assistance grants of up to 35 percent of the market price to buyers who meet income requirements. This grant remains with the home, benefiting future eligible buyers when the home is sold. In return, the original buyer agrees to limit the profit they make from the home’s appreciation.
The organization’s biggest job, Bridgewater said, is to “bring in subsidies.”
The Chalet project in Brattleboro will create new housing — both private homes and rental townhouses and apartments in new buildings at the Chalet site. A total of 70 homes will be built in four phases, and the Housing Trust has lined up most of the financing for the project, including a $6.2 grant from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and $1.02 million in low-income housing tax credits.
The Chalet will join numerous properties owned and managed by the Housing Trust in Brattleboro.
In addition to its active projects in Putney and Brattleboro, the Housing Trust recently completed a 27-unit project in downtown Bellows Falls — the BF Garage, named after the 1903 building the trust had originally hoped to renovate into housing.
She said the Housing Trust is still working to line up what she calls “the funding stack” for the full Chalet project. She said 85 percent of the funds needed are secured, which will create 70 new homes in West Brattleboro. In addition, the Housing Trust is in the pre-development stages of rehabilitating the former Holton Home into single and two bedroom apartments. “We’re aiming for 22 apartments out of 40 rooms,” she said.
The Housing Trust works with different non-profit housing partners, such as Evernorth in the Putney project, to line up financing and management of the project.
According to its 2024 annual report, the organization listed $7.6 million in revenue, up from $6.3 million in 2023. Expenses in 2024 totaled $6.07 million, up from $4.8 million in 2023.
The 2024 annual report also shows that ‘lending’ took up 48 percent of its expense budget, at $2.9 million, with homeownership at 8 percent, and housing development 4 percent. On the revenue side, the housing trust gets 73 percent of its revenue from various grants, totalling $5.5 million, with rental income only 5 percent.
And with hundreds of units going to low-income households, the trust has a built-in constitutency of problems and problem tenants, and has staffing to tackle those issues. It also has a partnership with Groundworks Collaborative to provide assistance to its tenants.
Two murders, both drug related, took place at Housing Trust properties two years ago, and police can be a familiar sight at Great River Terrace in Brattleboro.
In Bellows Falls, at The Garage, as its tenants call it, structural problems with the 100-year-old Art Deco building forced the House Trust to rethink its plans, demolish the landmark concrete building and start essentially from scratch, increasing its costs.
In Putney, the opposition of a handful of neighbors forced the project into a years-long delay and trips to the Vermont Supreme Court, which drove up costs substantially. And last month, at Putney Landing, an 18-unit, three-building development, a new tenant, in the throes of a mental breakdown, was shot and killed by Vermont State Police. The case is under investigation.
Bridgewater said the recent tragedy at Putney Landing brought people together in the Putney community. “People really supported each other,” she said. “They look out for each other.”
Bridgewater said the Housing Trust does its best to provide housing — and housing opportunities — and taking advantage of the different state and federal and private housing programs it can. Some of its tenants are living on the edge, financially and emotionally.
Bridgewater and other state and local housing officials say it costs a lot to build housing in Vermont, and that the Housing Trust’s costs per unit — which have garnered criticism from other landlords and developers — are realistic.
For instance, the Putney project is being heated and cooled by new thermo-dynamic and solar technology — which isn’t cheap, but will save its tenants money in the long run with lower utility costs, she says.
The Putney project on Alice Holway Drive saw its costs go up $2 million because of the delays, and the impact the pandemic had on construction costs.
Bridgewater says it takes about three years to plan and arrange financing for one of the Housing Trust’s projects, and she noted the organization has a good record with various federal and state agencies who approve the various components of what she calls “the funding stack.”
Bridgewater is optimistic but admittedly nervous about the future of housing funds from the federal government, especially in the era of the widespread cutbacks initiated by the Trump administration.
The federal budget year doesn’t start until October, and she says she’s told that “housing will be intact.”
But at the same time she acknowledged that HUD, the source of federal housing funds, has seen tremendous cuts in staffing. “It might just slow everything down,” she said.
The trust has partnered with commercial banks serving the area, including M&T (BF Garage) and TD Bank (Putney), to help finance the new construction in those towns.
“We’ve scored in the Top 2 in the statewide system,” she said, referring to the tax credit program run by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency.
The Housing Trust tries to develop and design its projects to take advantage of the different housing funds and incentives that are available, she said, making sure that the projects are in the downtown areas, “the right number of units,” and thus will be be able to offer apartments to people who were formely unhoused.
The state guidelines emphasize building housing in areas served by municipal water and sewer, “rather than in an open field.” Smart growth principles are also a big factor.
Evaluating and understanding the scoring process that the different agencies work under is key, she said. While the Housing Trust receives a lot of media attention for its housing projects, it also works closely with private homeowners, arranging low-interest loans for them to improve their homes.
And getting people into their own homes will always be their mission, Bridgewater said.