Housing Needs Assessments

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). 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.  

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.

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.