This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and 开云体育.
Vermont will receive nearly $68 million in federal long-term disaster recovery funding tied to the July 2023 floods.
The funding, by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday, comes out of a $12 billion allocation for communities impacted by disasters across the nation in recent years, from fires in Hawaii to hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina.
This kind of long-term recovery funding can go toward housing programs, infrastructure upgrades, economic development and hazard mitigation, and is primarily aimed at helping people with low and moderate incomes. The funding isn鈥檛 a given after a disaster hits.
Unlike immediate relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which can start flowing right after the president declares a disaster, Congress has to take action to appropriate these more flexible, long-range funds. The money Vermont will receive comes out of a disaster aid package that in December, and is based on a formula that assesses unmet needs for recovery.
鈥淚n the aftermath of Vermont鈥檚 brutal floods, I promised we would not abandon families and communities impacted by this disaster,鈥� U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who had pushed for supplemental recovery money for the state, said in a Tuesday press release. 鈥淭his funding will help Vermont take a big step forward and help our flooded communities recover stronger and more resiliently.鈥�
State officials will launch a monthslong, federally-mandated process to determine how to use this federal money, which will require considerable public input, said Doug Farnham, Vermont鈥檚 chief recovery officer. The federal housing department will need to sign off on a plan, and state lawmakers will have to greenlight the use of money, he noted. And while Farnham said he foresees 鈥渁 challenging conversation鈥� to determine how the finite pot of money gets spent, he identified housing as a major priority.
鈥淥ne of the bigger gaps that we鈥檝e seen over the last couple of years in recovery is available housing. It made displaced households鈥� experience so much worse 鈥� that there weren鈥檛 places that they could move into,鈥� Farnham said.
State officials saw interest in buyouts from 200-300 households following the July 2023 floods, according to Farnham. That number has fluctuated somewhat with time, as some families have been able to take advantage of funds to elevate their homes, for instance. But Farnham called it a fairly good metric for determining how many units of housing the state has lost from flooding in the midst of an extraordinarily tight housing market. The problem only worsened last year, with more devastating flooding taking homes offline, and an uptick in people seeking government buyouts, Farnham noted.
The federal funds announced Tuesday offer a rare opportunity to help build new housing outside of the most flood-prone areas. While FEMA鈥檚 aid programs generally tie a homeowner to rebuilding on the site of their damaged home, for instance, or buy them out with no guarantee of an available home to move into, these more flexible funds can allow a community to create homes where they didn鈥檛 exist before.
鈥淥ne of the coolest things about the program is that鈥ou can create new housing with it, directly,鈥� said Noah Patton, manager of the disaster recovery program at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. 鈥淵ou can kind of broadly get at the pre-disaster housing need, which is unique.鈥�
Other states have taken a range of approaches to using this funding for housing programs, Patton said. Some have combined the funding with federal tax credits to build new affordable multi-family housing, he said. Other common approaches have included home repair and replacement programs for individual homeowners and small-scale landlords, and rapid-rehousing programs for people who were made homeless by the disaster.
The funding could be used for things like the Gateway Project in Barre City, Farnham said, referring to an ambitious proposal pitched by Gov. Phil Scott after the 2023 floods. The project would overhaul a flood-prone neighborhood in the governor鈥檚 hometown by demolishing homes closest to the river, creating a new park, and building new housing at higher elevations around it. Helping Johnson, a town battered by flooding in 2023, create new homes outside of the floodplain could be another possible use of the funds, Farnham suggested.
After the 2023 flood, for impacted Vermonters, paling in comparison to the new federal funds. But Farnham emphasized that the new funding will not be sufficient to meet lingering needs for housing, particularly given current high construction costs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 absolutely not enough to meet the full need,鈥� Farnham said. But, he added, 鈥渨e鈥檙e extremely grateful that (Vermont鈥檚 congressional) delegation pushed and got that much money through. So, it will do a lot of good.鈥�
The funding announcement comes as state lawmakers return to Montpelier for the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, where debates over how much money the state should direct toward affordable housing development . Asked if he thought this federal funding could alleviate pressure on lawmakers to allocate money toward affordable housing, state Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, former chair of the General and Housing Committee in the House, gave an emphatic 鈥渘o.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be an additive to whatever we can put together,鈥� Stevens said. 鈥淚 suspect that it's going to take a while to get this money into a pipeline.鈥�
Farnham said he hopes the state鈥檚 Agency of Commerce and Community Development will launch programs to dole out the funds by the end of the year.
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