To the editor:

Lawrencians want to live in a place where all of our neighbors can have a roof over their heads.

 When local governments are feeling the stress of trying to make ends meet in the current climate of state budget cuts, housing for all might seem like an impossible dream. However, what I learned at the Lawrence Housing Trust Fund Conference hosted by Lawrence’s Tenants to Homeowners on July 17 was that affordable housing trust funds actually give more back to the communities that have them than they cost.

Gus Selig, the executive director of Vermont’s Housing and Conservation Board, the administrator of that state’s housing trust fund for the last 30 years, showed numbers for 14 communities from 2012 to 2104. For every $1 million Vermont has spent to rehab neglected and deteriorating buildings they have leveraged at least $8 million more in private and federal money, generating economic activity that creates not just the construction jobs on the site but even more jobs off-site.

It goes on. Rehabilitation creates ripple effects in economic development that generate even more jobs. People in subsidized housing share the equity that allows them to move on to enter the private real estate market, while the public housing gets recycled to help another family grow to economic independence. Seeing these payoffs prompted two cities in Vermont to create their own trust funds!

An affordable housing trust fund creates a win-win situation: We get a stronger, healthier community and build a stronger local economy.