Housing: unaffordable and unavailable

Needs assessment offers prescriptions for Williston’s housing crunch

BY JASON STARR Observer staff

Williston needs a “radical change” to the current rate of home construction to achieve a healthy housing market and ensure people who work here can also live here.

That’s one conclusion of a comprehensive housing needs assessment delivered in draft form Tuesday to the planning commission. The report was completed Feb. 2 by the Planning and Zoning Department with the help of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission and the Vermont Housing Finance Agency.

The assessment quantifies housing deficiencies that make it difficult to impossible for a portion of the town’s workforce to live locally and recommends policies the town could enact to increase housing availability and affordability.

“It covers a really broad range of challenges, gaps and potential solutions,” Planning Director Matt Boulanger said.

“It’s daunting but it is optimistic. The solutions are there.”

Williston has the highest ratio of jobs to homes in Chitten -