Housing Needs Assessments | HousingData.org - Directory of affordable rental housing

A housing needs assessment, or an HNA, is a powerful tool in understanding and communicating the housing needs of a community and it's people. The HNA itself can serve as a point-in-time of current housing conditions, useful both in explaining current trends, as well as acting as a reference point in the future. A Housing Needs Assessment frames the housing discussion by posing questions such as:

Who can and cannot afford to live in this community?
Can our children afford to remain in, or return to, the community as they form their own households?
Are populations with special housing needs given adequate housing options?
Are there substandard living conditions that should be addressed?
Do we provide the types of housing that promote local economic development?

Vermont completes a statewide housing needs assessment every five years to meet certain federal requirements of the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 2020 and in 2024, the VHFA Research & Community Relations department completed the statewide housing needs assessment for the state Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD). The 2025-2029 Vermont Housing Needs Assessment as well as past editions can be accessed on the publications page of VHFA.org.

Organizations across the state have prepared local housing needs assessments to quantify the housing market conditions within their community (town, county, or region). Often, housing needs assessments are conducted locally by the Regional Planning Commission (RPCs), but some towns have completed additional reports for their more specific purposes. Locally completed HNAs are a potentially rich resource of highly-specific local knowledge and data - by honing in one one community, researchers are sometimes able to gather more in-depth data through different methods.

The following list is a non-exhaustive record of HNAs completed for communities in Vermont in the last five years. If you know of a more recent housing needs assessment completed in Vermont that is not on this site, please contact the VHFA Research & Community Relations team.

Vermont Statewide Housing Needs Assessment

In 2024, the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) hired VHFA to conduct the 5-year Vermont Housing Needs Assessment. This Assessment is used to inform the State’s 5-Year Consolidated Plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other statewide and county housing and policy decisions for the years 2025-2029.

Many of the indicators used in this Housing Needs Assessment are accessible through this website's Community Profile visualizations. The Housing Needs Assessment report combines indicators to highlight the most pressing needs for housing programs in Vermont during the next 5 years.

Housing Needs Assessment chapters:

County chapters:

Addison County
Bennington County
Caledonia County
Chittenden County
Essex County
Franklin County
Grand Isle County
Lamoille County
Orange County
Orleans County
Rutland County
Washington County
Windham County
Windsor County

How to write a local needs assessment for your community

When deciding how best to support future housing in your community, it's incredibly valuable to quantify the current conditions. With this knowledge, municipalities are able to make data-informed decisions about potential policy solutions.

If your community does not have a recent local needs assessment or has never conducted a local assessment, it may be worthwhile to explore writing a new version. To help communities conduct their own needs assessments, VHFA created the Housing Needs Assessment Guide.

This assessment is a tool for collecting, organizing and analyzing information specific to individual communities. Identifying any outstanding gaps or needs for housing is a first step in planning how, when, and where to address local housing issues. Once the existing situation is understood, goals and priorities can be set, resources identified, and strategies chosen.

If you're not sure if your community has ever completed a Housing Needs Assessment, review the local HNAs below or contact your town administrator/local regional planning commission.

Addison County