Community Development
Associate Director: Susan Westa
Guided by its Community Development Committee, WRC works to help its member towns and the overall region on housing, community resources and economic development issues and projects. WRC’s brownfields work is guided by the community development needs of the region.
Recent efforts include helping towns in the region with planning for housing, broadband fiber development and village center and downtown planning and revitalization. WRC also actively participates in the Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategy (SEVEDS).
Housing – What Can Towns, and the Region Really Do About Creating More?
We’re deep in a housing crisis that was decades in the making. What can towns, and the Windham Regional Commission, do about it? This document looks to answer that question. Link to document
4 Town Housing Collaborative
The 4-Town Housing Collaborative explored opportunities for the towns of Jamaica, Londonderry, Weston, and Winhall to work together to identify solutions to address the housing crisis. WRC partnered with the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Center for Resilient Metro Regions in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Foundation’s Communities by Design (CxD) program to assist the communities. This was a voluntary effort led by the town’s Planning Commissions and Housing Committees. It was not binding but designed to help the town’s think regionally about addressing housing needs.
- Homes for Us! (large file), Final Report by AIA Communities by Design and UMASS Landscape Architectural and Regional Planning Program
- Housing Needs Assessment Report – developed by UMASS
- 4 Town Housing News Story, GNAT
- Homes for Us Presentation Slides – 9/26/2024
- Housing Needs Presentation Slides- 9/24/2024
Housing Resource Workshop
WRC and Windham Windsor Housing Trust hosted a Housing Resource Share in April 2024. Available resources were presented and towns shared their housing work. The slides can be found below.
Housing Coalition of Southeastern Vermont
The Housing Coalition of Southeastern Vermont is the cross-sector planning body focused on housing and homelessness in the Windham region. The goals of the Coalition are to end homelessness, support a healthy housing ecosystem, and prepare the community for future housing development opportunities. For more information, please see the links below to resources prepared by the Coalition:
Windham Aging
Windham Aging is a Collaboration of organizations who care about older Vermonters in Windham County. The Collaboration consists of leaders and experts in healthcare and social determinants of health among those aged 60+. The team is composed of leaders from various organizations who address these issues and needs.