Colchester breaks ground on affordable housing

COLCHESTER, Vt. (WCAX) - Governor Phil Scott Wednesday hosted HUD officials at the groundbreaking of a new Colchester affordable housing project.

The Stuart Avenue Apartments on Severance Road in Colchester will be a four-story complex with 36 units of mixed-income rental units, six of them earmarked for homeless Vermonters.

State officials say it highlights the nearly quarter-billion invested in housing this year, a historic amount allocated to tackling homelessness. They say Wednesday’s groundbreaking heralds Vermont joining House America, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development effort to address homelessness.

“There still is a lot of work to be done given the housing crisis and the complex solutions needed for so many households. Vermont is committed to the House America goal but also to providing wrap-around services to individuals in need to make sure they stay permanently housed,” said Vermont Agency of Human Services Secretary Jenney Samuelson.

Lawmakers this session allocated millions to create 560 new units of permanent housing for homeless Vermonters.

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