The State of Vermont recently released its 2024 Fair Housing Analysis, which identifies the factors that adversely impact fair housing choice in Vermont and outlines an action plan to overcome these barriers. Also released was Vermont’s 2025 Housing Needs Assessment, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the current and projected housing needs of each region in the state. Both reports provide valuable data that advocates hope can better inform policy makers about the unique housing challenges faced by constituents across the state, guide the allocation of resources, and support the development of policies and other tools to effectively address local needs.
The 2024 Fair Housing Analysis looks at various roadblocks to affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH), legislative wins that support fair housing, barriers that make solving housing inequality difficult, and steps that can be taken to make improvements. The analysis was completed by the Agency of Commerce and Community Development’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DCHD) and incorporates intentional input from community partners, housing experts, and groups with an important stake in fair housing. For example, DHCD worked with the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO), an NLIHC member, to connect with immigrant and refugee groups and engage vulnerable populations in the analysis process.
The 2024 Fair Housing Analysis shows that Vermont’s minority population doubled in the past 10 years and that the number of people experiencing homelessness increased 312% between 2020 and 2024. Thirty percent of the survey respondents reported facing housing discrimination, with disability status reported as the most common source of discrimination, followed by receipt of public assistance discrimination, which is one of Vermont’s additional protected classes. The analysis lists corrective steps taken to further fair housing in Vermont, such as fair housing training programs, targeted housing assistance for farmworkers, and the expansion of the Vermont Housing Improvement Program (VHIP) 2.0, which requires housing providers to complete a fair housing training. The analysis also lists legislative achievements for fair housing included in the Omnibus Housing Bill, Act 182 of 2022, and the Rental Safety Bill, Act 181 of 2023 (see Memo 6-6-22).
HUD requires states to conduct Fair Housing Analyses or Analyses of Housing Impediments to Fair Housing as a provision of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. While the Fair Housing Act expresses that meaningful actions must be taken to create “truly integrated and balanced living patterns” and affirmatively further fair housing (see Memo 1/13/25), the federal government has never fully realized its promise to affirmatively further fair housing.
The 2025 Vermont Housing Needs Assessment, which was conducted by DHCD in partnership with the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA), determines the current level of housing demand for various populations and regions of the state, and projects what will be needed by 2029. The assessment revealed the urgency of Vermont’s housing crisis, finding that more than half of renters in the state are cost-burdened and that 25% of renters spend more than 50% of their income on housing. In addition, the assessment reveals that Vermont has the second per capita homelessness rate in the U.S. The needs assessment projects that 36,000 additional homes will be needed by 2029 – including 16,000-20,000 rental homes – to meet demand, normalize vacancy rates, house the unhoused population, and replace homes lost from flooding and other causes. Included in the assessment are Statewide and Regional Housing Targets for 2030 and 2050 along with suggestions for measuring progress toward housing targets in the upcoming years.
Vermont’s lack of racial diversity is highlighted in both the Fair Housing Analysis and Housing Needs Assessment. Vermont is the second whitest state in the country, with only 1% of the population identifying as Black, 2% as Asian, 2% as Hispanic or Latino, and 4% as multiracial. Yet these minority groups are disproportionately impacted by discriminatory housing practices and housing instability. According to the Fair Housing Analysis, the white homeownership rate is 74%, while the Black homeownership rate is the lowest of all racial groups at 28%. Although Black people comprise only 1% of the population, they comprised 8% of the homeless population in 2023. The Housing Needs Assessment estimated that there will be a 78% increase in the number of Black households in Vermont, 84% for Asian households, and 73% for Hispanics, underscoring the importance in safeguarding protected classes from experiencing housing discrimination and expanding opportunities for low-income people of color.
“These two reports are essential to understanding and responding to Vermont’s housing crisis,” said Jess Hyman, associate director of statewide housing advocacy programs at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. “The challenges we face are complex but not insurmountable. We will use this data to inform our outreach to community members, housing providers, municipal officials, and policymakers and to improve language access and resources for Limited English Proficiency households. We look forward to working with DHCD, VHFA, the Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont, and other partners across the state to ensure that all Vermont residents – and especially the most vulnerable and those traditionally subject to housing discrimination and exclusion – have access to safe, affordable, and accessible homes.”
“These reports are another reminder that solving Vermont’s housing and homelessness crisis will require sustained, long term state investments in affordable housing and services,” says Frank Knaack, executive director of the Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont, an NLIHC state partner. “And, that it is a racial justice imperative that Vermont lawmakers place equity at the core of its investment strategy.”