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GIVING TUESDAY - Downstreet Housing & Community Development · Aired Out

0:32
Speaker 1: Kunta at nothing to make nothing nothing.
1:55
Speaker 2: All right, guys, the snow continues to fall, and I'll
2:09
Speaker 2: tell you the roads are not looking at all that
2:14
Speaker 2: great outside my window here North Main Street in Varya.
2:19
Speaker 2: We'll try to get a camera shot here and in
2:22
Speaker 2: just a little bit. But please drive carefully today. Exercise
2:26
Speaker 2: a whole heap of caution. This is pretty much the
2:32
Speaker 2: first halfway decent snow event that we've had this winter,
2:38
Speaker 2: and under the assumption that you've got your snow tires on.
2:42
Speaker 2: But still, even so, it's easy to forget how to
2:48
Speaker 2: how to drive for the snow. Just slow down. I
2:52
Speaker 2: don't need to. I don't mean to sound like your mother,
2:56
Speaker 2: but just to be careful today. Allow plenty of to
3:00
Speaker 2: distance between you and the guy in front of of you.
3:03
Speaker 2: There's a lot of plows out. The crews are working hard.
3:07
Speaker 2: Don't crowd the plow. I know that's been kind of
3:10
Speaker 2: a cliche statement over the winters, but it's true, especially
3:17
Speaker 2: on the big road on the interstate. Keep your speed
3:20
Speaker 2: in check today. Stay off your devices. Don't be driving
3:25
Speaker 2: down the road putting your makeup on, or reading the
3:27
Speaker 2: paper or on your phone. Be careful. It is giving Tuesday.
3:32
Speaker 2: And as I said, we've got another huge agency right
3:38
Speaker 2: here in central Vermont that is doing so so much
3:43
Speaker 2: for Vermonors. Not five days a week, seven days a week,
3:48
Speaker 2: around the clock, and some great people that are with
3:52
Speaker 2: me on the couch. Let's take you there. Nick Lantry
3:55
Speaker 2: is the operations manager over at Downstreet and Sarah Mudreaux. Listen,
4:02
Speaker 2: welcome to your new post. You and I have had
4:05
Speaker 2: a chance a little bit to chat. But this is exciting.
4:08
Speaker 2: This is this is You've been at this now for
4:12
Speaker 2: how long?
4:13
Speaker 3: I've been with Downstreet for about seven seven months a
4:16
Speaker 3: little more at this point.
4:17
Speaker 2: Okay, how exciting? How has it been so far?
4:21
Speaker 3: It's been fantastic. Honestly, I feel honored to work for
4:25
Speaker 3: an organization like Downstreet. I think the quality of work
4:29
Speaker 3: and the genuine passion and care that people bring to
4:32
Speaker 3: it every day is incredible.
4:34
Speaker 2: Yeah. And this guy sitting next to you, tell us
4:38
Speaker 2: about Nick. Nick.
4:41
Speaker 3: Nick is our what is your title? Operations manager? But
4:46
Speaker 3: Nick is our jack of all trades in the office.
4:48
Speaker 3: He works with every department and he is learning I
4:52
Speaker 3: think probably every department at Downstreet from compliance to communications.
4:57
Speaker 3: He does it. He does support for all of us.
5:00
Speaker 3: Nick is kind of a lynch pin. I would say
5:02
Speaker 3: in our office.
5:03
Speaker 2: Wow, Nick, tell me about what you guys are doing
5:09
Speaker 2: here on Giving Tuesday today.
5:14
Speaker 4: So today we're here, we want to talk to you
5:15
Speaker 4: about a lot of the stuff we got going on
5:17
Speaker 4: next year. We've got We've got a bunch of projects
5:20
Speaker 4: in the pipeline for twenty twenty six. Sarah's actually got,
5:23
Speaker 4: we got. We brought the list today. There's a lots
5:25
Speaker 4: of things perfect.
5:28
Speaker 2: But this is an opportunity today for folks to make
5:32
Speaker 2: a donation if they would like to downstreet and I'll
5:35
Speaker 2: get the link up there in the comments. But you
5:38
Speaker 2: guys are doing real, real important work here, and there's
5:41
Speaker 2: really some exciting things on the horizon. Let's let's tell
5:47
Speaker 2: me about some of them. And there's no rules here.
5:49
Speaker 2: You can cut each other off, you can jump right
5:52
Speaker 2: in what's coming up in twenty twenty six, well, maybe
5:56
Speaker 2: even recap the end of twenty twenty five. I mean,
5:59
Speaker 2: look at this right here in our community, the Speranza
6:01
Speaker 2: in we got the Fox run. Those are just two
6:03
Speaker 2: of the big hitters.
6:04
Speaker 4: At Ward five five five Ward five Brohmer Street was
6:07
Speaker 4: redone and we converted a schoolhouse that was that was
6:10
Speaker 4: a big one. That was a property that was off
6:14
Speaker 4: the tax rolls, so we put it back in the
6:16
Speaker 4: tax rolls. We converted it to nine units. We helped
6:20
Speaker 4: four people exit homelessness into permanently affordable housing, and we
6:25
Speaker 4: really created a community there. It's it's actually in my neighborhood.
6:29
Speaker 4: That was as a kid, that was my bus stop.
6:31
Speaker 4: So it's nice to see the building. Yeah, it looks
6:33
Speaker 4: beautiful now. And they did in July. The residents just
6:37
Speaker 4: of their own volition, got together and hosted a July
6:40
Speaker 4: fourth picnic for not just the building but everybody in
6:42
Speaker 4: that neighborhood. And they went around and invited people down.
6:45
Speaker 2: Wow. And and she's been in here, Kathy's beIN in here.
6:50
Speaker 2: There's some really exciting things that are wrap it up
6:54
Speaker 2: here in the month of December.
6:56
Speaker 3: Over at the Spurance in Yeah, In we purchased and
7:01
Speaker 3: started operating in April, and that took a massive renovation
7:05
Speaker 3: of that property. But there are forty two rooms there,
7:08
Speaker 3: thirty of which are now fully finished and fully occupied,
7:11
Speaker 3: and the other ten will be coming online this month.
7:15
Speaker 3: And that project is it's a homeless services hotel in
7:18
Speaker 3: downtown burry that serves our community, helps people have a
7:22
Speaker 3: stable place to be and get back on their feet.
7:24
Speaker 2: The old quality, the old quality.
7:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you've been by it looks incredible. It's
7:29
Speaker 3: a beautiful, beautiful color.
7:31
Speaker 2: Now, Nick, share with us what happened over there at Thanksgiving,
7:36
Speaker 2: because I just love stuff like this.
7:37
Speaker 4: So Kathy had a great idea where we could ask
7:41
Speaker 4: just a couple members of the community affiliates and staff
7:45
Speaker 4: to donate a couple of pies. And that was the
7:47
Speaker 4: idea was we'd have some pies and we do a
7:49
Speaker 4: nice pie breakfast for Thanksgiving. I had three pies left
7:53
Speaker 4: at the office once tonight I ran up there and
7:55
Speaker 4: I couldn't put them in the fridge because the fridge
7:58
Speaker 4: was full and the counter was fulled. There was about
8:00
Speaker 4: two dozen pies that were donated. There were some guests
8:04
Speaker 4: who were staying at the hotel. One of them was
8:06
Speaker 4: a formal cook and he was just he was giddy
8:09
Speaker 4: with the kitchen. He was telling me about how he
8:11
Speaker 4: made keish for people in the morning and he's going
8:13
Speaker 4: to come down Thanksgiving and he's going to be heating
8:15
Speaker 4: up pies and serving until they run out of food.
8:18
Speaker 2: I love that. It's so great. Let's talk about the
8:23
Speaker 2: coming year.
8:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, the coming year is going to be a really
8:26
Speaker 3: exciting one for us. I actually I did bring the
8:28
Speaker 3: list because there's a few projects and we didn't want
8:31
Speaker 3: to forget any of them. A couple of things. We're
8:34
Speaker 3: going to have a grand opening in Waterbury in the
8:36
Speaker 3: spring for Marsh House, and that is going to add
8:39
Speaker 3: twenty six new affordable homes, so that we'll be leasing
8:42
Speaker 3: for those in the spring, people will be moving in
8:44
Speaker 3: next year. We're also going to be doing three projects.
8:49
Speaker 3: We're going to be groundbreaking on three projects that will
8:52
Speaker 3: be here in Barry, in Montpellier, and in Johnson, and
8:56
Speaker 3: those are all multi family apartment buildings. The total number
9:00
Speaker 3: of affordable homes that will be added through those three
9:03
Speaker 3: projects is seventy seven in central Vermont, which is just extraordinary.
9:08
Speaker 3: And so that those are groundbreakings all happening in twenty
9:11
Speaker 3: twenty six. We're also going to be buying eight cabins
9:15
Speaker 3: up in Morrisville and renovating those into single family homes.
9:19
Speaker 3: Six of those will be becoming a shared equity homes.
9:23
Speaker 3: And then there's four homes that we're going to be
9:25
Speaker 3: opening in mont Pillier this year that are also going
9:28
Speaker 3: to be part of our shared equity portfolio, single family homes,
9:32
Speaker 3: a lot of homes that we're adding to the community.
9:35
Speaker 2: You know, I was looking at I was looking at
9:38
Speaker 2: your social media recently. The team that you guys have
9:42
Speaker 2: over there at Downstreet is huge.
9:45
Speaker 4: Yes, so like I, Sarah's been seven months. I've been
9:48
Speaker 4: here for just over our year. Half those people in
9:51
Speaker 4: the picture were new hires in the last year, So
9:55
Speaker 4: there was about thirty thirty staff in total when I
9:58
Speaker 4: came on, and I will the first of seventeen new
10:02
Speaker 4: positions that were created, and we've created about twelve or
10:06
Speaker 4: fifteen more positions in a second wave of hiring, and
10:09
Speaker 4: that's building out the staff for the Sproanza in because
10:13
Speaker 4: it's not just a hotel, it's wrap around services. So
10:16
Speaker 4: we have a case manager on site who's coordinating with
10:22
Speaker 4: the goal of helping those people not just have a
10:24
Speaker 4: place to stay. That's important, that's the first move. And
10:27
Speaker 4: then secondly, what other services do they need so they
10:30
Speaker 4: can successfully transition into permanently affordable housing. Let's get them
10:35
Speaker 4: housed and employed and integrated back into our community.
10:40
Speaker 2: When you say the words permanently affordable. Let's give a
10:47
Speaker 2: kind of a definition of what that is. It's long
10:51
Speaker 2: term affordable.
10:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, Actually, forever is the legal term that we abide by.
10:56
Speaker 4: We have what's called a forever covenant. So when we
10:59
Speaker 4: do projects like Fox Run or Ward five, we get
11:02
Speaker 4: a HUD money from the federal government and they say
11:05
Speaker 4: it has to be affordable, and they say you have
11:07
Speaker 4: to not only make it affordable, but you have to
11:09
Speaker 4: keep that building in your portfolio and you must keep
11:13
Speaker 4: it affordable by federal definitions forever. So when we build
11:18
Speaker 4: affordable housing, that.
11:20
Speaker 2: Is it rather than a limited time.
11:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, at no point do we transition into market rate
11:26
Speaker 4: housing or do we get to hike the rents. There's
11:30
Speaker 4: guidelines so that the numbers change over time because the
11:33
Speaker 4: markets change. The specific definition of the dollar amount of
11:36
Speaker 4: affordability will change over time, but we will forever be
11:40
Speaker 4: within those federal guidelines. They will forever be affordable housing.
11:44
Speaker 2: That's what you just said is so important. There is
11:47
Speaker 2: some flux here. I mean, of course there is. It's
11:51
Speaker 2: the global economy. I mean it's everywhere. But keeping it
11:56
Speaker 2: within within the means that people can really not only
12:01
Speaker 2: get in but stay is the key here. Is that's
12:05
Speaker 2: the goal.
12:05
Speaker 4: That's the goal. So it's all income based. So our
12:09
Speaker 4: our north star, our federal number that drives all these
12:12
Speaker 4: regulations is what it's called the AMI, the area median income.
12:17
Speaker 4: So for people who don't math, because I know there's
12:19
Speaker 4: not a lot of math, I'm a math gap, but
12:21
Speaker 4: not everybody else's I'm very much not, okay. So median
12:25
Speaker 4: is basically like an average. It's just a fancy way
12:28
Speaker 4: of doing a more accurate average. So they look at
12:31
Speaker 4: the income for Washington County and they say, on average,
12:35
Speaker 4: this is the income, and then we're going to peg
12:38
Speaker 4: affordability at eighty sixty and forty percent for the various
12:42
Speaker 4: programs of that average number. So so part of the
12:49
Speaker 4: struggle with that and Barry is that average number includes
12:53
Speaker 4: Waterbury and some more of the affluent towns they so
12:58
Speaker 4: in Barry we're on the end of that average, okay.
13:03
Speaker 2: So getting people to be able to comfortably afford to
13:08
Speaker 2: live and not have to cut corners elsewhere in their lives,
13:15
Speaker 2: whether it's medications or having a pet, caring for a pet,
13:23
Speaker 2: medical expenses, you know, we need we need to live.
13:27
Speaker 3: Right, What is it I think they recommend thirty percent
13:31
Speaker 3: of your income goes towards your rental expenses. And we
13:36
Speaker 3: have a lot more people in our communities that are
13:39
Speaker 3: spending more than fifty percent of their income just to
13:41
Speaker 3: afford rent every month. And that doesn't include heating your
13:44
Speaker 3: house and transportation and childcare and unforeseen medical events and
13:48
Speaker 3: all of those things.
13:49
Speaker 4: Prescription costs, yes, so we have an internal rule of
13:53
Speaker 4: fifty percent. We don't when we look at we ask
13:58
Speaker 4: applicants to demonstrate their come and we look at that
14:00
Speaker 4: and say, hey, can you is your income double the
14:04
Speaker 4: rent so you're only paying fifty percent, Like that's our ceiling.
14:07
Speaker 4: So there are some people where we have to say
14:09
Speaker 4: this particular apartment's not a good fit for you, because
14:12
Speaker 4: we're not going to rent to somebody that's going to
14:14
Speaker 4: be paying more than fifty percent of their income to
14:15
Speaker 4: the rent. That's not good long term planning, that's not
14:18
Speaker 4: fair to them. So we need to find a different
14:20
Speaker 4: a different apartment, a different program for them so that
14:24
Speaker 4: the apartment fits within their means.
14:26
Speaker 2: And she says that in the year twenty twenty five.
14:32
Speaker 2: This year, Downstreet had about seventy new homes under construction
14:38
Speaker 2: across four communities and as you guys said, seventy seven
14:43
Speaker 2: for that coming.
14:45
Speaker 3: Year, Yeah, we'd be breaking ground on seventy seven new
14:49
Speaker 3: homes and that the ones that Angie was talking about
14:52
Speaker 3: was Fox Run was included in that the Ward five
14:55
Speaker 3: schools and the work that we were doing on Marsh House,
14:58
Speaker 3: which will open in the spring.
15:00
Speaker 2: Unless we forget about Seminary.
15:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the very So we call that Steven Spranch
15:06
Speaker 4: Apartments and that's the one that we'll be breaking ground
15:08
Speaker 4: in spring.
15:10
Speaker 2: This coming a couple of months.
15:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we're we're pulling all the details together.
15:15
Speaker 2: Wow, let's talk about Fox Run. It's so beautiful. And
15:19
Speaker 2: look look where look at the location. I mean it's
15:23
Speaker 2: right there, it's right there. Let's talk about getting into
15:30
Speaker 2: Fox Run. You've got a couple of units still available, yep,
15:35
Speaker 2: but they're filling up.
15:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, we were, We're there are four units left. They're
15:39
Speaker 4: all two bedroom units. So there's a they're listed on
15:42
Speaker 4: the web page. And uh and actually we have for
15:46
Speaker 4: fox Run, we have a specific site. If you go
15:48
Speaker 4: to the rental page on our website, Fox Run has
15:51
Speaker 4: its own page still and you can you can get
15:54
Speaker 4: the application there. There's contact information from both questions, and
15:59
Speaker 4: for the month for anybody who leases in December, we're
16:03
Speaker 4: giving a discount for one month of free rent to
16:05
Speaker 4: help people get into the apartment, because I know that
16:08
Speaker 4: sometimes it's hard to get in with first and last
16:10
Speaker 4: and deposit and all that.
16:12
Speaker 2: Sure, but I mean, look at your walking distance to
16:16
Speaker 2: shopping employment. Employment. I mean, you could literally live at
16:21
Speaker 2: Fox Run and easily have a job at the Central
16:25
Speaker 2: Medical Center.
16:26
Speaker 4: And that's that. That was a huge collaboration with the
16:29
Speaker 4: town of Berlin, and we're both really excited about that.
16:32
Speaker 4: They're they're building a downtown center there. I mean, and
16:35
Speaker 4: we've heard about this for years, but now we're seeing it.
16:38
Speaker 4: The new road's going in Fox Run.
16:40
Speaker 2: Is there?
16:40
Speaker 4: Chestnut Place is there? They're starting to build. They're building
16:44
Speaker 4: up a food place next to it. Is a Starbucks?
16:48
Speaker 2: Maybe, Yes, I heard about.
16:49
Speaker 4: Starbucks at Chipotle and that's all going right next to
16:53
Speaker 4: Fox Run. That road all the way around is going
16:55
Speaker 4: to be built up if you look at the town plan.
16:58
Speaker 4: So so Fox Run is the beginning of building a
17:01
Speaker 4: downtown center. So people who live there are going to
17:04
Speaker 4: be in downtown Berlin.
17:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, downtown Berlin.
17:08
Speaker 4: How about that?
17:08
Speaker 2: What a concept. Isn't that something? And I'm just gonna
17:16
Speaker 2: speak here on behalf of many for honors. Thank god,
17:22
Speaker 2: they're repaving that road, yes, come on.
17:26
Speaker 4: Oh oh oh, they're not just repaving it, they're rebasing it.
17:30
Speaker 4: I drove by there and look, they tore that whole thing.
17:32
Speaker 2: Out there on the ground up as they should have. Yes,
17:35
Speaker 2: and it's wider. I mean, it's just it and it's
17:37
Speaker 2: you come on, it's a supper road. Now, It's right,
17:41
Speaker 2: it's a proper needed it's it's it was so it's
17:43
Speaker 2: so far overdue and it's so needed getting in there,
17:46
Speaker 2: getting out of there, not just for for the locals,
17:51
Speaker 2: but also for folks that are hopping off, the tourists
17:54
Speaker 2: that are hopping off Exit seven and they want to
17:56
Speaker 2: get something and get out. The perception is reality of
18:03
Speaker 2: our roads. And I mean, look at it's really really beautiful. Now, yeah,
18:08
Speaker 2: it's nice.
18:09
Speaker 4: And you mentioned Fox Run. Its beautiful. And I think
18:11
Speaker 4: that's an important point to notice. When we're talking about
18:13
Speaker 4: permanently affordable housing. It doesn't mean that we're building to
18:17
Speaker 4: minimum codes.
18:17
Speaker 2: And we're yeah, right, people have a.
18:20
Speaker 4: Right to housing, but they also have a right to
18:22
Speaker 4: live in beautiful housing right that that's part of respecting
18:26
Speaker 4: people who need these housing. All of us have a
18:28
Speaker 4: right to live in housing that is beautiful and functional
18:33
Speaker 4: and well built. So when we're doing these projects, we
18:36
Speaker 4: are building it with that in mind, that these are
18:38
Speaker 4: people's homes we're building, and we take that seriously in
18:41
Speaker 4: the design build process.
18:42
Speaker 3: And we're also thinking years down the road in terms
18:45
Speaker 3: of sustainability, so it's being built with quality materials that
18:48
Speaker 3: will last and is built with energy efficiency as well.
18:53
Speaker 2: Codes have really changed here over the last couple of
18:59
Speaker 2: years building coats and to your point, we've got stuff
19:04
Speaker 2: that's being built to last a heck of a lot longer,
19:08
Speaker 2: which is great news. You guys are doing a great
19:13
Speaker 2: job connecting with your community. You've got some fantastic outreach
19:17
Speaker 2: on Thursdays here, you're you're doing stuff with your social
19:20
Speaker 2: media where you're connecting with so many for honors to
19:25
Speaker 2: answer questions and provide some information from the source. Tell
19:31
Speaker 2: me about that a little bit.
19:33
Speaker 4: That was your idea, I think, well, So it started
19:37
Speaker 4: with Sarah's predecessor. We we had a communications and development
19:41
Speaker 4: director and then he moved back to New York. He
19:46
Speaker 4: got a different job because he was he was moving
19:48
Speaker 4: back and that was about a month after I was hired,
19:51
Speaker 4: So so that was a year ago. Yeah, that was December.
19:55
Speaker 4: So I had some projects when I first came on
19:58
Speaker 4: and some some big tea projects that just things that
20:01
Speaker 4: needed to be addressed that had been long standing. And
20:05
Speaker 4: then around the springtime I took over social media. Just
20:09
Speaker 4: the idea was to keep it alive. Let's just let's
20:11
Speaker 4: just keep Facebook posting and work with what we've got
20:14
Speaker 4: and keep it alive until we can until we can
20:16
Speaker 4: have a marketing team, which with the addition of Grace, now.
20:19
Speaker 2: We have great stuff. I mean there's there's Honestly, it's
20:26
Speaker 2: it's like enough always. And I think I said this
20:30
Speaker 2: to you at one point, nick, I, along with so
20:34
Speaker 2: many others, have always heard the words downstreet housing and
20:40
Speaker 2: community development, but never really had a full a general
20:47
Speaker 2: grasp of what it is that you do, but never
20:52
Speaker 2: a thorough understanding. And I think you guys are really
20:56
Speaker 2: chipping away at that and making sure that more from
20:59
Speaker 2: honors not only know exactly what it is that you do,
21:04
Speaker 2: but also support what you do financially and otherwise.
21:08
Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely, and we do a lot. So the goodness
21:11
Speaker 4: is we do a lot. The challenge with outreach is
21:15
Speaker 4: we do a lot of different things, so it's not
21:18
Speaker 4: a short answer. And that's where a lot of this
21:20
Speaker 4: posting came about. When I started working for Downstreets, I
21:23
Speaker 4: was telling all my friends and family like, hey, I
21:25
Speaker 4: got a job at Downstreets, like I've always wanted this,
21:27
Speaker 4: This is great. And they're like, yeah, who is that?
21:31
Speaker 4: And I'm like, I'm like CVCLT, Right, you remember the
21:33
Speaker 4: land Trust And I'm like, oh, yeah, they build houses
21:36
Speaker 4: or something, right, And I'm like, no, nobody knew what,
21:40
Speaker 4: and I'm from here, so I just assumed that everybody
21:43
Speaker 4: would know. And that's part of the challenge, especially as
21:46
Speaker 4: the organization grows and we get really into housing, as
21:48
Speaker 4: we sort of drink the juice. So I know, and
21:52
Speaker 4: I assume that other people know. And this seems really
21:54
Speaker 4: obvious to us, but it's not obvious to everybody else
21:58
Speaker 4: because because we're just talking about it to ourselves internally, right,
22:01
Speaker 4: we need to help it be obvious to everybody else
22:04
Speaker 4: by talking about all these things like the Thursday FAQ's. Yeah,
22:08
Speaker 4: to answer these we have questions that keep coming up,
22:11
Speaker 4: so we keep posting those questions and the answers to
22:14
Speaker 4: those questions.
22:15
Speaker 2: You guys are on track to own what now, eight
22:21
Speaker 2: hundred apartments somewhere in that in that figure.
22:26
Speaker 4: Here grow over eight hundred now yeah, with the additional
22:28
Speaker 4: Lamoyle County. We crossed eight hundred a few months ago.
22:32
Speaker 2: All right, so almost at a thou.
22:35
Speaker 4: Well yeah, seventy yeah, seventy here and seventy there.
22:38
Speaker 2: We'll get there and just under if if I remember correctly,
22:43
Speaker 2: just under a hundred manufactured homes. I think somewhere in
22:48
Speaker 2: that ballpark.
22:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, the parks, Yeah, Bridge Street, Limehurst. There's another one
22:56
Speaker 4: in Williamstown, and I think there's some unless I'm still learning.
22:59
Speaker 4: The wild portfolio like that that doubled everything, So we're
23:03
Speaker 4: I've been taking drives out to Morrisfield to learn.
23:05
Speaker 2: You guys just have partnered up with the Vermont Housing
23:11
Speaker 2: and Conservation Board and hosted the Vermont House Appropriations Committee
23:17
Speaker 2: on a tour of some of these projects. Just pretty slick.
23:23
Speaker 2: I think that's important.
23:25
Speaker 4: We do a lot of work with VHCB, and they're
23:28
Speaker 4: a huge partner. They because they get these things cost money.
23:32
Speaker 4: It was half a million, a little over half a
23:34
Speaker 4: million dollars per unit and climbing times seventy seven units
23:40
Speaker 4: next year. So so I'm not good enough with math
23:45
Speaker 4: to do that in my head, but it's a big number, right,
23:47
Speaker 4: that's a big number. And not all that comes from
23:50
Speaker 4: the federal government, and what comes from the federal government
23:52
Speaker 4: comes with strings. So anytime we can get it from
23:55
Speaker 4: state or local, that gives us more flexibility to have
23:58
Speaker 4: projects that are that are more designed around the needs
24:02
Speaker 4: of the community and less designed around the constraints of
24:04
Speaker 4: the funding.
24:06
Speaker 2: We're we're head first here into a new legislative session.
24:14
Speaker 2: Do you feel that the powers that be under the
24:20
Speaker 2: Golden Dome are really as privy as they maybe should
24:25
Speaker 2: be to the good things, the great things that you
24:29
Speaker 2: guys are doing at Downstreet. Are they as aware as
24:36
Speaker 2: they should be that you guys are really chipping away
24:39
Speaker 2: at the homeless crisis that we have in our states. Yes, yeah, I.
24:46
Speaker 3: Think they know, and they're very supportive.
24:48
Speaker 4: And Angie and Kevin do a lot of work communicating
24:52
Speaker 4: amount player and that's what helps build these partnerships with
24:55
Speaker 4: these these state and pseudo state organizations that keep us going.
24:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, we all hear the word affordability, We all hear
25:04
Speaker 2: the word housing. Often those two words go together, and
25:08
Speaker 2: those are hot buttons. Man. I mean three of us
25:11
Speaker 2: know that those are buzzwords here in Vermont. We need
25:15
Speaker 2: to we really need to get this figured out. And
25:18
Speaker 2: it affects everything. I mean, it's really the foundation of
25:23
Speaker 2: If we don't have that, we're not going to have
25:26
Speaker 2: these other things fall into place.
25:29
Speaker 4: It's the foundation of our community.
25:31
Speaker 2: It is.
25:31
Speaker 4: So when we have housing, then we have people who
25:34
Speaker 4: can live here. And when we have people who can
25:36
Speaker 4: live here, now we have people who can work here,
25:39
Speaker 4: and people who can generate income and pay taxes and contribute.
25:43
Speaker 4: That's it, right, All of those things predicate on those
25:47
Speaker 4: people having somewhere to live. Yeah. And it's not just
25:50
Speaker 4: it's not just people moving in it, it's people who
25:52
Speaker 4: grew up here. Like I've spent most of my life
25:54
Speaker 4: on the same hillside of the same valley, and I
25:58
Speaker 4: struggled to be able to buy a house. I had
26:01
Speaker 4: family members question why I bothered moving back here. Both
26:04
Speaker 4: of my siblings that they left and they do very
26:07
Speaker 4: well in other states.
26:09
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:10
Speaker 4: So so we have programs that help with that, Like
26:13
Speaker 4: you mentioned the shared Equity program, that's huge, that's that
26:16
Speaker 4: helps get people into houses. That helps with that that
26:19
Speaker 4: down payment, that sort of unreal number that we need
26:23
Speaker 4: to have to get a mortgage.
26:25
Speaker 2: What about home share? Is that anything that you guys
26:28
Speaker 2: get into discuss that is not.
26:31
Speaker 4: Us, that is not There is an organization who o
26:34
Speaker 4: Vermont Homeshare does that very well, So that that's the
26:37
Speaker 4: need that's being met somewhere else.
26:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a time when so many of us
26:44
Speaker 2: are counting our blessings. We're so grateful for what we have,
26:52
Speaker 2: and some of us don't have a lot, but this
26:57
Speaker 2: is the season it tends to be anyway where we
27:00
Speaker 2: do count those blessings, even if there are few and
27:04
Speaker 2: far between. Uh hu, we've also said that and you
27:12
Speaker 2: just said uh when you when you came to the building, Nick,
27:15
Speaker 2: we're what a bad day away I think was your words,
27:20
Speaker 2: A bad day away from being homeless.
27:22
Speaker 4: So many people are one bad day with you know.
27:25
Speaker 2: I anything could happen.
27:26
Speaker 4: So shortly before I came to Downstrets, I lost a
27:29
Speaker 4: job and that was a rough day and my first,
27:33
Speaker 4: my first crisis I crossed my mind was like how
27:37
Speaker 4: many mortgage payments can I make before I run out
27:40
Speaker 4: of money? That's the I lose a job. The next
27:43
Speaker 4: thing to go is I lose my house. And it
27:45
Speaker 4: was it was eight months of six banks to be
27:49
Speaker 4: able to get a mortgage to keep that house. And
27:51
Speaker 4: I don't want to have to go through that again.
27:54
Speaker 4: And so and we've seen it, we've seen you know,
27:59
Speaker 4: the stories are the people that come to Speranza in
28:02
Speaker 4: places like that because their house caught fire. Sure, and
28:08
Speaker 4: the insurance money came through, and it's not enough to
28:10
Speaker 4: buy a house, So now they're and then it's not
28:12
Speaker 4: enough to get an apartment. Now what do they do.
28:15
Speaker 4: We had a family who they were paying the rent
28:19
Speaker 4: and they did everything right. The landlord was not paying
28:22
Speaker 4: the mortgage, and when the bank foreclosed, the landlord still
28:25
Speaker 4: gets to keep all that rent money and the people
28:28
Speaker 4: who live there are pushed out. The great story is
28:33
Speaker 4: for both of those people, they were able to go
28:34
Speaker 4: one through Speranza and another through Ward five and we're
28:37
Speaker 4: able to get them into housing and support them so
28:40
Speaker 4: they could move forward.
28:41
Speaker 2: With their lives. This could happen to any of us,
28:43
Speaker 2: any of us, including the three of us sitting right here.
28:47
Speaker 2: You mentioned fire. I mean, you could be in a
28:50
Speaker 2: horrible accident, You could have a health crisis. I mean,
28:52
Speaker 2: there's there's so many different things that could be stacked
28:56
Speaker 2: up against you where you need help.
29:00
Speaker 4: Mm hmm. It's I mean, it's it's scary because we
29:03
Speaker 4: don't have a lot of social help right now and
29:08
Speaker 4: and it and people are falling through the crocs with
29:10
Speaker 4: social programs. Which is why the which is why I'm
29:13
Speaker 4: proud of the work we do. It downstreets and why
29:14
Speaker 4: I come to work. So there are a lot of
29:16
Speaker 4: people we can catch before they fall through, and we
29:19
Speaker 4: can help them with shared equity programs, we can help
29:22
Speaker 4: them with subsidized housing, we can help them through Speranza,
29:28
Speaker 4: you know, and there's we can help them through SASH
29:31
Speaker 4: and wrap around services. And this is why we this
29:33
Speaker 4: is why we do I mentioned we do. The good
29:36
Speaker 4: news is we do all these things. The challenges we
29:38
Speaker 4: have to explain all these different things we do because
29:41
Speaker 4: those are because those are all the needs we service,
29:44
Speaker 4: and not just this community we service Berry, and we're
29:47
Speaker 4: based out here and Berry, but but we service several
29:50
Speaker 4: communities across three counties where we're servicing from here down
29:55
Speaker 4: to Bradford, and we're servicing from here up to Johnson
29:58
Speaker 4: and all those communities in between in all the various
30:01
Speaker 4: and sundry needs that they have. So we're looking at
30:03
Speaker 4: our programs and finding ways to create solutions for each
30:08
Speaker 4: one of those communities.
30:09
Speaker 2: What about career opportunities over it down Street, that's.
30:15
Speaker 4: A great career opportunity where we're big on hiring within.
30:19
Speaker 4: We've actually had to hire four maintenance techs in the
30:24
Speaker 4: past year because they keep getting from a maintenance tech
30:27
Speaker 4: that moved into real estate development. We have a maintenance
30:29
Speaker 4: tech who's a property manager now. Our maintenance director, facility
30:35
Speaker 4: director was needs title facilities facilities director was originally a
30:39
Speaker 4: maintenance tech. So every time somebody moves into the office
30:45
Speaker 4: or gets another job to forward their career, then we
30:47
Speaker 4: hire another maintenance tech.
30:48
Speaker 3: But definitely check out the website because there are jobs
30:51
Speaker 3: posted on it right now.
30:52
Speaker 4: Yes, we are. We are accounting because we're growing, yeah,
30:57
Speaker 4: and that means we have a lot of growing and
31:00
Speaker 4: property management growing in the portfolio. Also means our back
31:03
Speaker 4: end services like compliance and accounting need to grow, so
31:07
Speaker 4: we're creating new positions. We have a new position for marketing,
31:13
Speaker 4: and we have a new position and compliance, and we
31:17
Speaker 4: have a new position in accounting.
31:20
Speaker 2: Sarah, you mentioned the website. It's incredible, it's amazing. It
31:25
Speaker 2: is just chuck full of so much and some of
31:31
Speaker 2: what you'll see are a lot of what you'll see
31:33
Speaker 2: our available apartments, yes, and living opportunities.
31:38
Speaker 3: It's a really comprehensive look at all the different programs
31:41
Speaker 3: that we that we operate there. It's a good place
31:44
Speaker 3: to go if you're a member of the community that
31:46
Speaker 3: wants to know more about what we're doing. If you're
31:47
Speaker 3: looking for an apartment, if you're looking for career opportunities,
31:51
Speaker 3: if you're looking to make a donation but you can,
31:54
Speaker 3: you know that will tell our story. There is a
31:56
Speaker 3: section called Stories, and if you're just looking to know
32:00
Speaker 3: how we operate and how we touch people's lives, go
32:03
Speaker 3: there and read about some of the things that we do.
32:06
Speaker 2: It's a lot. It's Giving Tuesday. Make a uh, you know,
32:12
Speaker 2: make a a donation, a gift to Downstreet if you
32:17
Speaker 2: would like. We've got the link up there. You guys
32:22
Speaker 2: are really uh doing incredible work and I am honored
32:27
Speaker 2: to be connected with you. You've always always always got a
32:32
Speaker 2: microphone for anything that you need to promote or otherwise,
32:38
Speaker 2: just let me know.
32:40
Speaker 4: Giving Tuesdays. So we've talked about some really big numbers
32:45
Speaker 4: and a five dollar donation doesn't seem like it's going
32:48
Speaker 4: to help. And that's absolutely false. I know every five dollars.
32:54
Speaker 4: Never underestimate five dollar donations spread across the community. It's
32:58
Speaker 4: the theory of you know, a small group of people
33:02
Speaker 4: makes big changes. Power numbers, power numbers, all those all
33:05
Speaker 4: those No donation is a small donation, Every every donation,
33:09
Speaker 4: every dollar counts and every little all of those dollars
33:13
Speaker 4: add up, and that's what helps us keep the lights on,
33:15
Speaker 4: and that's what helps us keep going, and that's what
33:17
Speaker 4: helps us create new programs that are tailored to the
33:21
Speaker 4: needs of our community.
33:22
Speaker 3: And we're so grateful to this community who's been tremendously
33:25
Speaker 3: supportive of Downstreet and the work that we're doing.
33:27
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, one of these days, it's it's going to happen.
33:33
Speaker 2: Kevin Ellis is going to get in here. You know,
33:36
Speaker 2: he and I met a couple of years ago and
33:40
Speaker 2: we're like, yeah, man, we got to get in touch,
33:42
Speaker 2: we got to get connected, and we're just super busy guys.
33:48
Speaker 3: Well, Kevin is our board chair. H this is his
33:51
Speaker 3: last term on the board, so before he is done
33:54
Speaker 3: in the spring, ye have him come on.
33:56
Speaker 2: Here's the thing. He's not afraid of a microphone though
33:59
Speaker 2: at all. What a great guy. I look forward to
34:03
Speaker 2: having him on. Thank you both so much for sneaking
34:07
Speaker 2: in here. Anything else we can think of that we
34:09
Speaker 2: want to wrap up with. We're covering all our basis
34:12
Speaker 2: this morning.
34:13
Speaker 4: I think we covered a lot this morning. But let's
34:15
Speaker 4: just take it time to say thank you for this
34:17
Speaker 4: time of opportunity to reach out and educate our community.
34:20
Speaker 2: My great pleasure. Thank you both so much for coming
34:24
Speaker 2: in here again. Be careful driving today. It is it
34:28
Speaker 2: is looking very snowy out there. It is not great.
34:32
Speaker 2: Go easy today. Thank you both so much. Now you
34:35
Speaker 2: guys don't need to drive out of here. Yeah, you're
34:38
Speaker 2: going to walk the right across the parking lot over
34:41
Speaker 2: at Summer Street. What a great building that is too,
34:44
Speaker 2: It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. Thank you both so much. Downstreet,
34:49
Speaker 2: Sarah Moodreaux and I am saying that correct, Madrew, but
34:53
Speaker 2: Drew the director of Development and Operations Manager Nick Lantry,
34:59
Speaker 2: thank you ever so much, Thank you, thank you,