Success Stories

Putting the “Share” into Shared Equity Homeownership

Posted on May 1, 2025 By

Putting the “Share” into Shared Equity Homeownership The day Dylan and Rebecca Merrifox sold their home was bittersweet. Selling the home, which is part of Champlain Housing Trust’s shared equity program, meant saying goodbye to a special place for their young family – even as they were excited for their next step. “It really was […]

Read More

This is What Stability Looks Like

Posted on January 31, 2025 By

This is What Stability Looks Like Hannah Pickett spoke at Champlain Housing Trust’s annual Cornerstone Luncheon in November 2024, a fundraising event attended by about 300 guests. She also spoke at Vermont Housing & Conservation Coalition’s Legislative Day at the State House in February 2025. Here are her remarks.  Good afternoon and thank you for […]

Read More

Don’t Let Your Past Define Your Future

Posted on January 23, 2025 By

Don’t Let the Past Define Your Future “One thing I remember about living in the shelter was I taught myself how to snap my fingers,” recalled Josslyn McKenna. She, her parents, and her sister had become homeless when she was five. Now 17 and a junior at Essex High School – and at home at Champlain […]

Read More

Everything I Wanted

Posted on By

Everything I Wanted Not too long ago, Laura Allyn felt stuck. But now, sitting in her one-bedroom home in Burlington, surrounded by family pictures and paintings – many of them done by her mother – Laura explains how this welcoming home once seemed so out of reach for her. “It was a very dark time. […]

Read More

A Home with a Lake View

Posted on May 6, 2024 By

A Home with a Lake View Late in 2019, Rose and Michael Jerome toured a Champlain Housing Trust apartment on King Street in Burlington. After years spent bouncing from one place to another, they walked into the vacant 4th floor apartment at 88 King Street ready to find a home they could stay in for […]

Read More

My Journey to Homeownership & CHT Board Service

Posted on April 29, 2024 By

My Journey to Homeownership & CHT Board Service Issouf Ouattara is a Champlain Housing Trust Board member and shared equity homeowner who wrote and shared the following remarks at our fundraiser luncheon in November 2023. Good afternoon, everyone! My name is Issouf Ouattara, and I am a CHT Board member. I work at UVM as […]

Read More

A Stable Home

Posted on February 2, 2024 By

A Stable Home Photos courtesy of Glenn Russell Before moving into her new apartment in Williston, Michelle Lucas had been without housing for more than four years. She bounced between motels rooms funded by the State or friends’ homes but couldn’t find stability – especially hard as she struggled with multiple health challenges ranging from […]

Read More

I Feel Like I’m Home

Posted on December 18, 2023 By

I Feel Like I’m Home   Laurie Grant lived with her mother for six years and was perfectly content, but when her mom passed away in 2018, Laurie needed a change. “There were too many painful reminders everywhere I looked,” she said. Laurie applied for an apartment from Champlain Housing Trust and over the next […]

Read More

Making a Meaningful Gift

Posted on September 7, 2023 By

Joanne Heidkamp and Paul Demers moved to Vermont from Cincinnati in the mid-1990s and found a house in a quiet neighborhood in South Burlington. They felt a wonderful sense of community. “You can always borrow a tool, and you’re happy to feed someone’s cat. Outgrown clothes and toys are passed along from house to house. […]

Read More

We’re Paying for our Future

Posted on August 30, 2023 By

Seated on his couch in a large open living room and dining space in his home in the Old North End of Burlington, Ganesh Adhikari is surrounded by pictures of loved ones, family heirlooms and decorations. On one wall there’s a video game console connected to the TV with games stacked on top. It’s the […]

Read More

Good Neighbors

Posted on July 20, 2023 By

Good Neighbors Having a Quiet Home to Rest and Relax is Essential to this Resident of Avenue Apartments   [Note: On August 12, 2023, Ahmed Omar died in his sleep unexpectedly. Our thoughts are with his family and many friends. A GoFundMe page has been set up to support them in this difficult time.] Ahmed […]

Read More

It Didn’t Get Any Better Than That

Posted on June 6, 2023 By

It Didn’t Get Any Better Than That   Wanda Hines knows exactly how to count the years she owned her home on Oak Street in Burlington’s Old North End: she was pregnant with her son at the time. “My son was born in April of 1998 and we closed on the house the following year,” […]

Read More