This is a brief summary of our apartments-in-homes program
More detailed information can be found at:
In 2003 we looked at two growing housing problems: shortage of decent rental housing affordable to low-income people, and homeowners’ difficulty keeping their homes in the face of rising costs. It struck us that there’s a way to address both problems together: help the homeowner create an apartment.
So, without funding for a program, we helped two homeowners make apartments. We then won generous funding from the Town of Brattleboro and the Thomas Thompson Trust. By 2017, we’d helped create over 50 apartments. Most have been in houses, some in garages or barns.
BAAH provides technical help, often some hand-holding, and after the apartment has been completed, $5,000 toward the costs of construction. Responsibility for the construction is entirely the homeowner’s. Grant amount is based on 50% reimbursement of actual costs up to $10,000.
Total costs of creating apartments have ranged from $5,000 to $50,000. Rental income normally repays that cost within two to five years. After that, net rent typically pays the majority of the property tax.
Homeowners are free to rent to whomever they wish. And, once there is a tenant, BAAH remains available for guidance and support.
This is the cheapest way we know of to produce new housing. And it is energy- and land-efficient. Recent Vermont legislation encourages the development of apartments in homes.
Main funding for the program has been provided by the Town of Brattleboro, Thomas Thompson Trust, and BAAH funds received from generous donors.
Brattleboro or Bellows Falls homeowners interested in learning about this program may call 246-2224, Ext 1. But please first read the information at Apartments-in-Homes: Information for Homeowners.
NOTE: The program is limited to single-family homes in which the owner lives and where there is not an apartment already on the property and where the owner plans to stay in the homes for at least five years.
