Affordable housing continues to be the City’s highest community development priority. In 2005, the City Council identified affordable housing as one of its top three priorities. The Community & Economic Development Office (CEDO) has continued working closely with the City Council Community Development and Neighborhood Revitalization Committee to amend existing ordinances and launch new initiatives to address the housing crisis. Vermont Interfaith Action has also brought an organized group of citizens into the debate over how to create housing that is affordable to low-income residents. As part of the comprehensive revision of the City’s zoning ordinance, CEDO has advocated policies to encourage housing development and rehabilitation.

Over the last program year:

• With the help of CDBG and HOME dollars (together with the Housing Trust Fund, inclusionary zoning, and other resources and technical assistance from the Community & Economic Development Office), 58 new affordable housing units are currently under construction or in the predevelopment phase.
• Fifty-seven housing units were rehabbed, with work ranging from new paint to emergency repairs to major rehabilitation.

Cumulatively measuring progress over the last four years of this Consolidated Plan period (and with one year left to go), we are exceeding our goals in creating new owner units for those at the 80% of median income level, for buyer assistance at all income levels, and for rental rehab at all income levels. We are behind in creating new rental units at all income levels, in creating new owner units at the lower income levels and at owner rehab at all levels.

Right now, with declining CDBG funding for the City overall and reductions in CDBG funds for housing programs, CEDO is no longer able to provide an acceptable level of service and funding for Burlington’s low- and moderate-income households. Due to persistent funding reductions to the Housing Division, CEDO could make only one home accessible to a person with disabilities and our free paint program is serving only about half the number of homes in the areas targeted for improvement. In years past, CEDO was able to fund physical improvements to one of the City’s homeless shelters – that is no longer possible with declining amounts of CDBG funding for our housing programs. So, while housing continues to be the City’s highest community development priority, the resources available to address the housing needs of our low and moderate-income residents are just inadequate. This deficiency must be addressed if we are to avoid moving backward. In addition, compliance with federal regulations makes small projects highly staff intensive – and this, combined with declining resources, means that we will have to change our program to limit assistance for owner rehab and small rental rehab projects.

Much of the funding and staff effort this year in our Housing Division has gone into preserving Low Income Housing Tax Credit apartment complexes as affordable housing and into acquiring and rehabilitating substandard rental properties in the Old North End. In addition, we have provided significant technical assistance to several private sector housing developers to navigate the development review and permit appeal process. Unfortunately, the vast majority of market-rate and affordable housing projects that have been approved by the City wind up under appeal by adjacent property owners. Legislative changes that were intended to make the appeal process more fair and timely have not yet proven to ameliorate a permit process that often takes years to negotiate and is both very costly and risky for developers.

On the nonprofit development side, several major projects are just now coming to fruition. For example, the structure of the BankNorth redevelopment project has undergone yet another change and is now proceeding in several phases. Redstone Development Company will create 16 market rate loft units in the former Hinds Building on the northwest corner of St. Paul and King Streets, which received approval as an Historic Building Tax Credit project. Champlain Housing Trust and Housing Vermont are developing a 20-unit Low Income Housing Tax Credit project that will be managed as a co-op. These same two partner organizations have completed the renovations of six rental properties scattered through the Old North End – now called the Callahan Housing Project. This project involved major rehabilitation and lead hazard reduction of 28 existing apartments in the Old North End in support of the North Street Revitalization Project.

Other projects worthy of mention are the Burlington Housing Authority’s acquisition and development of transitional housing near Franklin Square public housing, and Burlington Co-Housing’s East Avenue project. BHA has purchased a single-family house and will add 10 transitional apartments for women leaving the battered women’s shelter. Co-Housing is nearing completion on construction of 30 new condos on East Avenue. As part of this project, eleven units will be sold to households earning less than median income. This project is benefiting from the flexibility created by HUD’s designation of the Burlington Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area (NRSA), which allows the City to aggregate all housing units assisted with CDBG and located in the NRSA for purposes of meeting the federal requirement that at least 51% of CDBG be used to benefit low- and moderate-income households.

Economic development is the City’s next community development priority. This year:

• CDBG-funded economic development activities supported the start-up of 32 new businesses, helped to retain/expand 19 businesses, and led to the creation of 412.5 permanent FTE jobs (plus 1,156 construction jobs) and the retention of 149 permanent FTE jobs.
• Those expenditures leveraged over $45 million in private and other public investment and supported the development of close to 70,000 square feet of new commercial space, with increased tax revenues of $405,119. (And, each dollar spent on construction is estimated to yield $2.75 additional dollars to the local economy.)
• CDBG dollars helped to provide quality, affordable childcare for 88 children from low- and moderate-income families, sustaining their ability to work.

In the past year, a slight decline in the overall number of jobs in the City continued. Programmatically, however, we are exceeding our goals on job creation and retention. The commercial vacancy rates remain healthy, and the City continues to see growth in gross receipts and in rooms, meals & alcohol taxes. Nonresidential property tax revenues remain static overall, though, with increased revenues from new development offset by reduced revenues on existing properties.

Downtown, a new 127-room hotel is complete, creating 41 full-time and two part-time jobs. CEDO worked with the new managing partner of the Burlington Town Center to increase visibility through a $2 million “facelift” on the Church Street entrance, and infrastructure renovations on the Church Street Marketplace will continue with $6 million in federal funding. The City continues to work with Redstone Commercial and the Champlain Housing Trust on the mixed-use redevelopment of the downtown BankNorth site and on the redevelopment of the former Shanana (Hunts Armory) site on Main Street.

On the waterfront, CEDO and the Burlington Community Development Corporation are working with Chris Cornell to develop 22,000 sq. ft of commercial space and twelve housing units (three of which are inclusionary units) at 131 Battery Street, with construction due to begin in the fall of 2007. CEDO is coordinating the work of a Task Force, potential users group, and several consultants to complete a full feasibility report on the Moran Plant, with voter action anticipated in March 2008.

On North Street ten years ago, there were 18 businesses and nine vacant commercial spaces. Today, there are 30 businesses and only two vacant commercial spaces. A façade improvement program funded by Citizen’s Bank helped Dion’s Security renovate and expand its space this year.

In the South End, General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products continues work on the final phase of its $50 million engineering Center of Excellence, its premier technology incubator nationwide; the City continues to work with General Dynamics and Gilbane Properties on redevelopment opportunities on the property across the street. Coffee Enterprises has a five-year lease for the Blodgett Office building and completed a $550,000 gut rehab of the building. The City has received federal transportation monies for pre-development of the South End Transit Center; the land for the project has been acquired and a site assessment performed. The City worked with Specialty Filaments to sell their property at 444 Pine Street to Lake Champlain Chocolates and Dealer.com. Champlain Chocolates completed a $3.2 million renovation on 46,000 sq. ft. of the property and is the first LEED registered warehouse and distribution project in Vermont. CEDO will be providing a $50,000 grant to Dealer.com to purchase the second half of the building, with plans for a complete “gut rehab.” Dealer.com established three workforce training programs with VTHITEC, training 29 new employees this year.

Elsewhere, the Vermont Center for Emerging Technology at the University of Vermont’s Trinity Campus had four tenants this year, with three graduations. CEDO supported two tenants with working capital loans. The Airport has received state and city permits and has begun to expand the Industrial Park by 15 acres.

CDBG dollars are also helping social service agencies provide for basic needs of city residents as well as fostering equal access, health, public safety, and senior and youth services:

• Through the help of CDBG grants, over 5,100 people (adults and children) were fed by anti-hunger programs; over 1,500 homeless people (including families with children and victims of domestic violence) had a safe, warm place to sleep; and over 2,100 people kept their heat on.
• Over 300 youth participated in CDBG-funded summertime and after-school recreational, academic and social enrichment programs, and over 1,633 seniors received meals, health care, help with public benefits, in-home assistance and/or participated in social activities.
• The Burlington Neighborhood Project (formerly the Public Safety Project) supported 48 neighborhood associations in low-income neighborhoods citywide.
• CDBG grants helped the start-up of the Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV) as well as English as a Second Language courses at the Fletcher Free Library.
• Seventy-three percent of those served by CDBG-funded social service programs were “extremely low” income – which for a family of four in 2007 means an annual income of less than $21,200.

The CDBG program is supplemented by other anti-poverty initiatives. City-initiated meetings among local agencies led to a new initiative designed to help low-income families access new resources, kicked off in January of last year. Operated by NeighborKeepers in partnership with a group of six local social service agencies, each participating family is matched with three trained “Allies,” typically middle-class volunteers. Together, the family and its team of Allies work on developing social and community connections, increasing education and/or work skills, and building assets. The Allies in turn learn first-hand about the barriers that these families face. Over the first six months of the project, participants saw a 69% increase in earned income and a 21% increase in overall income (including public benefits). The project will expand next year into the refugee community with the assistance of an AmeriCorps*VISTA.

The City continues to work in other ways to improve the integration of refugees into the community. In addition to the School District, preschool and afterschool providers are experiencing staff and client stresses as they work to welcome the children of newcomers and to ensure their success as new Americans. Discussions are underway to explore ways to support both refugees and providers.

The City continues to take part in the National League of Cities’ Family Asset Building initiative (having been competitively selected as one of six Round 2 participants) and in the Creating Assets, Savings and Hope (CASH) coalition. Through the CASH Coalition and with the assistance of a Leadership Champlain team, the City is participating in a data collection effort to more accurately assess local community conditions and needs around debt, savings and financial education.

Through the CASH Coalition, the City again sponsored a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site at City Hall, providing free help to low-income taxpayers in accessing the Earned Income Tax Credit (the largest federal anti-poverty program), the Child Tax Credit and other tax refund opportunities. There are three such sites in Chittenden County and collectively, the three sites helped 1,003 low- and moderate-income taxpayers file their tax returns this year. Forty-two volunteers worked throughout the tax season to help these taxpayers access over $1.5 million in federal and state refunds and save over $150,000 in tax preparation fees.

The CASH Coalition held two “Free Credit Score Days” during the program year, one in September and one in May. Open to those with a household income less than $40,000, the event offered free credit scores (obtained and paid for by Northfield Savings Bank) together with one-on-one interpretation/counseling on the associated credit reports and workshops on budgeting, saving and checking accounts. Seventy-three people participated in the two events this year.

Finally, community facilities and public infrastructure also benefited from CDBG dollars:

• The City obtained an American Battlefield Protection Program grant to help build a War of 1812 memorial in Battery Park, including reinterment of remains uncovered in the right-of-way during North Street construction. Four interpretive plaques have been developed, to be installed downtown, under the Scenic Byways Program. The gateway park at the northern entrance into the City was enhanced with new curbing on No. Winooski Avenue and the purchase of interpretive plaques.
• Federally-funded street improvement projects moved forward, with scoping complete and preliminary engineering underway for Battery & College Street improvements and planning underway for improvements to Church Street Marketplace sidestreets.
• Community members have taken the initiative to improve their neighborhood streets and parks with over $20,000 in grassroots neighborhood grant spending.

A Public Hearing will be held before the Burlington City Council on September 24, 2007, concerning this Report. Comments will be accepted at the Public Hearing as well as online and at the Community & Economic Development Office through September 24, 2007. We continue to solicit the input and feedback of our citizens concerning the allocation and expenditure of our CDBG resources, and we will continue to integrate that feedback into the future allocation of resources.

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