2007 Action Plan for Housing & Community Development
Additional Housing Actions

Vacant and Abandoned Buildings

When the Burlington City Council adopted an ordinance in 1999 designed to discourage vacant and abandoned buildings, there were approximately 20-30 such buildings scattered throughout the city. Because property values are so high, abandonment is not an issue in Burlington. After the Code Enforcement Office re-committed to enforcing the ordinance in 2005, the number of vacant buildings is estimated at less than 6. Nearly all of the remaining vacant buildings are deemed suitable for housing rehabilitation and would be considered eligible for listing on the national register of historic resources.

Addressing Housing Barriers

The City of Burlington is continually evaluating its policies and procedures to identify and remove unnecessary barriers to affordable housing development. In the "Housing Super Committee Report" that was unanimously adopted by City Council on March 27, 2006, there are several specific actions relating to the removal of such barriers. Specifically, the City will:

• Develop and adopt a flexible rehabilitation sub-code that provides clear guidelines for each category of housing rehabilitation, increases the predictability for property owners and reduces the cost of housing rehabilitation.
• Convene a focus group of homebuilders and developers periodically to gather feedback on local barriers to new housing development and substantial rehabilitation. CEDO is charged with drafting a resolution for City Council adoption that directs various City departments to convene stakeholders on this issue and provide an annual progress report to the Council on efforts to remove the identified barriers.
• Provide annual training to the Development Review, Design Advisory and Conservation Boards to ensure that members of these review boards fully understand their roles, proper meeting protocols, and the rights of all parties and to ensure impartial project review on the part of board members. The Planning Commission and their staff plan to commence this training in the spring/summer of 2007.
• Develop a pilot project to conduct on-the-record (OTR) development review hearings for projects that meet the requirements for Major Impact Review. The City Council has approved a pilot project that involves reviewing a discreet number of applications using OTR.  The strategy will include concerted effort on educating residents bout the OTR review process.

In addition, the City is in the process of the first comprehensive revision of the zoning bylaws in over twenty years. The intent of this revision is to make the ordinance easier to use for the City, developers and citizens. This effort should help to remove many procedural and policy barriers to affordable housing development.

Lead-Based Paint

In 2003, the City was awarded a 42-month, $1,567,019 Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control grant from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. The Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) started the Burlington Lead Program which uses these funds to prevent childhood lead poisoning by reducing lead paint hazards and increasing awareness about the dangers posed by lead. The program had the following goals:

• reduce lead-based paint hazards in 80 low-income housing units;
• perform risk assessments/lead-based paint inspections in 120 units;
• sponsor 36 community outreach events that reach 5,000 people;
• conduct 18 training events to educate 500 property owners and managers about keeping their properties in a lead-safe condition;
• provide free lead testing for all resident children.

The City's nonprofit housing partners collaborate with the Burlington Lead Program to test the properties they rehabilitate for lead paint hazards and to mitigate lead paint hazards. All owners of multiple-unit properties and contractors working on these properties are required to provide evidence that they have taken the Lead Paint Hazard Reduction Essential Maintenance Practices (EMP) class and that they have undertaken EMP work on their rental units.

The City will continue to undertake the following additional activities to address lead paint hazards in the City's housing units:

• For housing assisted with public funds from the City's Housing Initiatives Program, CEDO will insist on a plan for mitigating lead paint hazards in cases where that housing is occupied by children under six years of age.
• CEDO will require all recipients of free exterior paint to participate in an EMP training course. These are held throughout the state and are offered free of charge in Burlington by the Burlington Lead Program.

The 2001 HUD Lead Safe Housing Rule applies to federally subsidized housing and requires that loose/deteriorating paint in a housing unit with a child age six years or under must be corrected by appropriately trained maintenance people, and that the unit must subsequently pass a clearance test. With the creation of the Burlington Lead Program, the City has ensured that this potentially serious new hurdle for recruiting private landlords to participate in the Section 8 program will be overcome. The availability of this program also helps prevent discrimination against families with young children - a group that already encounters great difficulty in a tight housing market.

Fair Housing

The City’s Assistant Director for Housing serves as the co-convener of the Housing Action Group of the Racism Study Circles. Based on previous public forums and the work of this group, the following fair housing goals were set for the next year:

• Develop fair housing intake capacity in the City Attorney's Office in order to expedite the complaint process.
• Provide advocacy for and support to the fair housing efforts of Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, Vermont Legal Aid and the VT Human Rights Commission.

The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) Fair Housing Project’s rental audit study on national origin discrimination found a 50% rate of discrimination against non-Islamic immigrants and a 47% rate of discrimination against Islamic immigrants. The high rate of discrimination found in this study indicates there are significant barriers for both Islamic and non-Islamic immigrants seeking housing in Vermont.

The results of this study are consistent with two statewide fair housing audit studies conducted by the CVOEO Fair Housing Project in recent years. An audit of the rental market conducted in 1999 found a 46% rate of race discrimination, and 48% of the race based tests in a 2002 study of the sales market found evidence of discrimination. Both of these studies indicate the need for more fair housing outreach, education and enforcement. CEDO is collaborating with the Vermont Human Rights Commission to provide fair housing training for municipal officials in April 2006. CEDO is also partnering with CVOEO for education and outreach, and with Vermont Legal Aid for testing and enforcement.

The Community & Economic Development Office actively encourages affirmative marketing of HOME-funded units. Recipients of HOME funds must try to provide information to and otherwise attract eligible persons from all racial, ethnic and gender groups in the housing market area. All correspondence, notices and advertisements related to HOME funds must contain either the Equal Housing Opportunity logotype or slogan. Participants in the HOME program are required to use affirmative fair housing marketing practices in soliciting renters or buyers, determining their eligibility, and concluding all transactions. In addition, owners of HOME-assisted housing must comply with the following procedures:

• Any advertising of vacant units must include the equal housing opportunity logo or statement. Advertising media may include newspapers, radio, television, brochures, leaflets or simply a sign in a window;
• Outreach is expected to community organizations, employment centers, housing agencies, social service agencies, medical centers, schools and municipalities;
• Owners must maintain a file containing a record of all marketing efforts (e.g., copies of newspaper ads, copies of letters).

Public Housing

The Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) is a designated “High Performer” and does not require financial assistance from the City of Burlington. BHA has created an affiliate nonprofit organization, Burlington Supportive Housing Initiatives, Inc. (BSHI), which will be seeking 501(c)(3) status. The purpose of this nonprofit is to develop affordable supportive housing initiatives and the resident service program of BHA. CEDO’s Assistant Director for Housing serves as the City’s representative on the founding BSHI Board and is presently the Chair of the Board. The City will work with BSHI to increase funding for resident service programs for BHA program participants, including the Family Self-Sufficiency Program, youth mentoring, homeownership and independent living.

The City supports the implementation and expansion of BHA’s Section 8 Homeownership Option Program and encourages BHA to fully utilize its ability to project-base Section 8 vouchers in support of new affordable housing development.

Homeless and Special Needs Populations

The City drafted a 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in 2003, and is currently implementing it, to the extent possible in the face of shrinking public resources.  A transitional housing project for women offenders exiting corrections is currently under construction, and one for victims of domestic abuse will begin construction this spring. Efforts for the upcoming program year specific to the chronically homeless include expanding the supply of permanent supportive units through the dedication of an additional 14 Section vouchers for this population. Implementation efforts which include CDBG and HOME resources are described under Housing Priority 4 of this Action Plan. The Chittenden County Continuum of Care is currently developing action priorities for this year.

Resale

The Burlington HOME Program provides low-interest loans for eligible homebuyers to assist with down payment and closing costs. These loans are secured by subordinate mortgages. When properties assisted with HOME funds for this purpose are sold or transferred, the full amount of the loan plus any accrued interest is recaptured. The HOME Program uses these funds according to the HUD rules governing HOME program income. When a property owner assisted with HOME funds for this purpose refinances their principal mortgage, the City shall consider executing a subordination agreement upon receiving a written request with sufficient documentation on current fair market value and proposed refinancing amount. When considering such requests to subordinate its HOME mortgage, the City shall require that the loan-to-value ratio be no greater than 100%. When a HOME-assisted homeownership unit that is encumbered (through the requirements of another funding source) with covenants ensuring perpetual affordability for households below 80% of area median income is sold, the City does not recapture the HOME funds unless the covenants are extinguished and the affordability is no longer ensured.

HOME Program Matching Contribution

The City will meet or exceed the requirement that “contributions must total not less than 25% of funds drawn from the jurisdiction’s HOME Investment Trust Fund Treasury account in that fiscal year”, excluding funds drawn for administrative and planning costs pursuant to 24 CFR 92.207. Sources of matching funds include, but are not limited to, Vermont Housing and Conservation Trust Fund, Burlington Housing Trust Fund, waiver of impact fees, and private debt financing secured by property owners and nonprofit organizations.

Tenant-Based Rental Assistance

The City does not use HOME funds to provide Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, and believes that HOME funds are best used for the development and preservation of affordable housing rather than short term rental subsidies.

Affirmative Marketing

It is the policy of the City of Burlington HOME Program to provide information and otherwise attract eligible persons in the housing market area to available housing constructed or rehabilitated under the HOME Program without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, religion, sexual orientation, familial status, receipt of public assistance or disability.

The City of Burlington HOME Program will incorporate the Equal Housing Opportunity logo in its letterhead, press releases and advertisements.

Grantees receiving HOME funds will be required to contact one or more of the following agencies before filling vacancies during the HOME affordability period as stated in the HOME Program Loan/Grant agreement: local or State Housing Authority, Community Action agencies, area Mental Health and Mental Retardation agencies, area Office on Aging agency, area homeless shelters, the Department of Social Welfare, Committee on Temporary Shelter, Vermont Center for Independent Living or any state-wide handicapped accessibility clearing house, area AIDS service organizations, medical centers, schools, municipalities and any other social service agencies.

Any advertisement of vacant rental or ownership units during the HOME affordability period must include the equal housing opportunity logo or statement. Advertising media may include newspapers, radio, television, brochures, leaflets, or simply a sign in a window.

Housing borrowers, grantees or property management agents must display the fair housing poster in areas that are accessible to the public. Property owners or their management agents must maintain a file containing a record of all marketing efforts (e.g., copies of newspaper ads, copies of letters).

The City’s HOME Program will monitor compliance as part of its ongoing monitoring process. Where noncompliance is discovered, the HOME Program will provide technical assistance to secure voluntary compliance. If this proves unsuccessful, the HOME Program will refer aggrieved parties to appropriate entities to seek redress.

Refinancing

Multi-family projects developed by locally based housing organizations that receive HOME funds for rehabilitation may utilize HOME funds to refinance existing debt, consistent with 24 CFR 92.206(b)(2), if they meet the following guidelines:

1. Refinancing is necessary to permit or to continue affordability under 24 CFR 92.252;
2. Rehabilitation is the primary eligible activity. A minimum of $7,500 of rehabilitation per unit is required;
3. The grantee must demonstrate management capacity and practices that ensure that the long term needs of the project can be met and the targeted population can be served over an extended affordability period;
4. The grantee must demonstrate that the new investment is being made to maintain current affordable units, to create greater affordability in current affordable units, or to create additional affordable units;
5. Refinancing will be limited to projects that have previously received an investment of public funds;
6. The minimum HOME affordability period shall be 15 years and all HOME assisted projects developed by locally based housing organizations are required to be perpetually affordable;
7. HOME funds may be used for refinancing anywhere in the City of Burlington;
8. HOME funds cannot be used to refinance multi-family loans made or insured by any Federal program, including CDBG.

Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Participation

The City of Burlington is in the process of revising its Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise policy.  The Community & Economic Development Office will develop a web-based registry of self-certified DBEs and will do outreach to local businesses to make them aware that the registry can help them access government contracting opportunities.

Other Forms of Investment

All HOME funds are invested in a manner consistent with 24 CFR 92.205(b)(1). Specifically, HOME funds are invested in interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing amortizing loans and in deferred loans and grants.

Page last updated April 30, 2007