Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont internship, for the Stowe Reporter
During Stowe’s traditional in-person Town Meeting Day, voters approved a new fund to help build affordable housing.
The Housing Reserve Fund will “receive funds to promote the development of safe and affordable housing and to be administered and expended by the selectboard in conformance with those purposes and the Stowe Town Plan,” according to the successful proposal.
The fund could accept donations, but there are no plans at this time to use taxpayer money for it.
“This is a very small step in affirming that this community is committed to affordable housing,” Stowe Selectboard member Beth Gadbois said.
More than half of Stowe’s residential properties are second homes or short-term rentals, according to the Stowe Housing Needs Assessment.
Two members of the town’s Housing Task Force, McKee Macdonald and Josi Kytle, gave a brief presentation to lay out what the Housing Reserve Fund is, and what it would do for the residents of Stowe.
The task force was formed in August 2024 to “evaluate the housing situation in Stowe, and provide recommendations for what we should be doing,” Kytle said.
Macdonald and Kytle said Stowe needs an “all of the above approach” when it comes to solving the housing crisis. Creating the Housing Reserve Fund is just a small piece in the puzzle, they said.
“We are asking to set up a bank account. Not asking to fund the bank account, we are simply asking you today to approve the establishment of a fund,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald went on to explain how this fund would receive money from individual donations. This reserve fund, unlike the town’s general fund, would be able to carry over money from year-to-year. The town’s general fund has to be spent annually, and affordable housing cannot be built in a year, as several citizens pointed out.
“This is a model other communities are doing,” Kytle said.
“Affordable housing is not affordable to build,” Gadbois added.
Many residents voiced concern that the creation of this fund would open the door for increased taxes. Selectboard member Ethan Carlson said this was not the intent of the fund, saying there is nothing in this article that changes citizen rights around taxation.
“It’s a very transparent process,” Gadbois added. “Our money is not spent without all of your approval.”
There was also concern about whether or not donations to the fund would be tax deductible, which no one at the meeting was able to definitively answer.
After a long and robust conversation, the Housing Reserve Fund vote passed by a voice vote.