April 23d, 2010

Nightmare On Loomis Street: Affordable Rentals in Burlington

By Becka Gregory

Burlington is in good supply of many things: lakeside sunsets, eclectic eateries, college campuses: the list goes on and on. One thing that is not so plentiful in Vermont’s Queen City: housing.

Moving is arguably one of the biggest pains life has to offer, but doing so in Burlington proves even more challenging. Every part of the complex system that makes a housing market profitable is under attack in this quirky Vermont town. This web of problems has interlocking pieces that make a simple explanation of the housing crisis nearly impossible, but a brief overview of some of the failing areas allows at least a little insight into a complicated problem.

First, landlords are charging too much for too little. The cost of an average 1 bedroom increased 10.76% in between 2008 and 2009. The average two-bedroom apartment was found to have increased 14.42% in the same time. “Last year I found a great one bedroom apartment for only $850 a month, but it’s hard to find something that price now. Most of the stuff near campus is up to over $900 a month, some even at over $1000,” says Champlain student David Pinkham. In his recent search for a new living space, he found landlord hiking up base rent, while cutting utilities from the price. “My old apartment covered utilities, but this time around they’re not included.” In units with antiquated heating and cooling features such as furnaces and windows, heating bills can skyrocket in the winter, putting even more finical stress on renters.

Everyone is feeling the repercussions of a recovering economy, and those controlling the valued commodity of housing have the upper hand. Prices are going up, but most Vermonters can’t afford to pay rising rental rates. To pay “Fair Market Rent,” which is considered housing costs which are less than 30% of ones incomes, a Vermont household would have to earn $17.57 per hour, or $36,550 annually; but more than 151,216 working Vermonters don’t make that much, according to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB).

The cost of living in Burlington is already 9.44% higher than the U.S. average, and many people are feeling the squeeze even more when trying to find living arrangements. “I can’t afford to be paying more than $600 a month for rent, and most of the apartments I looked for were in that price range, or higher. It was pretty ridiculous.” said Pinkham. Looking for an apartment in this market is likely to yield three bedrooms at up to $2,100 or more, not including utilities.

These unreasonable prices are driving some to seek residence in outlying towns such as
Winooski or South Burlington, where rent is likely to be half as much for the same amount of space. “When I saw how expensive the rent was going to be I had to think seriously about moving outside of town, which is not what I wanted to do at all. But apartments just across the bridge in Winooski are almost half the price of places in Burlington,” said Pinkham.

While prices are increasing, spaces are decreasing: there are more citizens than housing, and new construction is at a standstill. The Chittenden County Housing Task Force found previously that the city was short on housing by almost two thousand units. The gap was expected to increase to five thousand by this year, especially if there was no movement to start new construction. In 2002 Burlington received over 4 million dollars for new housing and reconstruction in the Old North End, which was heralded to yield a total of 32 new housing units. But the supply simply isn’t meeting the demand, with projects like this continuing to be very uncommon.

That could have a lot to do with the influx of student residents from one of the five local colleges. Students make up a large portion of the population of Burlington in the academic year. A survey of housing encompassed on Pearl, North Willard, North and North Prospect streets found 70 percent to 80 percent of rental units in the area were student occupied. These students are a contributing factor in the over saturated housing market. According to Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont, a study published by the Vermont Housing Conservation Board, Vermont had the tightest rental housing market in the nation in 2008, at only 3.5% vacancy, lower than what’s considered “healthy” in the market, which is 5%.

Good news is on the forefront of this ever evolving situation; The Burlington housing Authority received almost $200,000 last Tuesday for housing and urban development (HUD), which will go towards rental assistance for members of the HUD program. Earlier in April Vermont also received $250,000 from HUD for affordable and energy efficient housing. The money will encompass plans to update lacking equipment, as well as educate tenants on how to use their new environmentally friendly fixtures and instructions on upkeep. These two projects are a step in the right direction of fixing the housing crises, but it will be a long and complex process to put together all the pieces of the housing puzzle.