Study: Rentals affordable, except for poorest
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By Bruce Edwards Rutland Herald - Published: February 8, 2007
Rents in Vermont are the second-lowest in New England and much lower than the national average. But the report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston also found that while apartments in much of New England are affordable, there is a critical shortage of affordable housing for low-income residents.
"Though rental housing in New England is expensive relative to the rest of the nation, the region's incomes are high enough that rental housing is affordable to most New Englanders," according to the affordable housing study by the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
The 173-page report, which also looked at home ownership, said the lack of affordable housing "may be undermining the region's ability to attract and retain workers, especially those with skills in high demand."
A Vermont low-income advocate criticized the report's conclusion that rents in Vermont and throughout New England are affordable.
"I think if you talk to any working person in Vermont you'll find more and more people are unable to find affordable apartments," Emma Mulvaney-Stanak of the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign said Wednesday.
At the same time, the report bolstered the state's position that "Vermont is facing a housing affordability crisis that must be addressed or our economic security will be threatened," Kevin Dorn, secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, said in a statement.
To address the problem, Dorn cited proposed legislation called the New Neighborhoods Initiative, which would streamline the permit process for housing in municipalities with appropriate planning and zoning.
"This bill would allow the creation of relatively small housing developments that would not contribute to sprawl; that would be served by existing infrastructure; and that would be affordable to working families," Dorn said.
The Boston bank's report said that between 1995 and 2005 apartment prices have not accelerated as quickly as housing prices in the six New England states. In 2005, New England's gross
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