Champlain Housing Trust showcases Bay Ridge redevelopment, warns of funding 'cliff' for affordable projects

Michael Monte, chief executive officer of Champlain Housing Trust, told the House of Corrections and Institutions Committee on Feb. 13 that a decade of work turning older motels into permanently affordable housing culminated this fall with Bay Ridge, a new neighborhood in Shelburne that includes 68 apartments and 28 shared‑equity homes.

Monte said the project preserved two renovateable motel buildings and added new rental and homeownership units, and that the development includes a range of rents targeted at multiple income bands. "This is workforce housing," he said, noting that about 75–80% of residents are employed and that 30 households will use vouchers while roughly 20 families will be exiting homelessness into the new units.

The presentation outlined a complex capital stack with 16 sources for the rental portion and eight for the homeownership portion. Monte said the project relied heavily on Vermont Housing & Conservation Board support, federal HUD resources, congressional earmarks and a significant ARPA infusion — about $9,500,000 in one line item — alongside a 4% Low‑Income Housing Tax Credit (a federal tax credit program). He said the 4% tax credit enabled financing but that the project depended on many additional public and private sources to reach closing.

Committee members pressed Monte on sustainability and the risk of losing one‑time funds. "If all of this disappears and there's not some additional funds, do the best you can," Monte said, warning of a potential "cliff" when ARPA and similar one‑time sources expire and urging continued state support for VHCB to keep project pipelines moving.

Members also connected the housing work to corrections and reentry. One legislator noted that housing scarcity forces some people to remain incarcerated past their minimums. Monte said CHT has partnered with service providers and transitional housing programs — citing a sale of a specialized facility to Pathways that now houses people with acute behavioral needs — and described resident services work that aims to keep formerly homeless tenants housed. "When people are housed with us who are formerly homeless, 90–95% of them stay housed," he said.

Monte described CHT’s property management approach as largely self‑sustaining: most properties have five‑ and 15‑year capital plans, and a small in‑house team monitors underperforming assets for refinance or restructuring. Committee members praised the project as a model but continued to ask for state strategies to avoid reliance on one‑time federal funds.

The committee did not take any formal votes on the presentation. Monte thanked the members and offered to return for further questions or follow‑up on capital needs and voucher impacts.