Chloe Learey is executive director of the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development.
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro needs more housing - and it needs more kinds of housing. Employers are struggling to recruit workers. Young people want to remain in the community where they grew up. Families are looking for homes they can afford, and older residents want options that allow them to remain close to their friends, family, and community.
The Village at Winston Prouty is a ready-to-build opportunity to add much-needed workforce housing to Brattleboro. The first phase is a 30-unit multifamily development designed to provide market-rate rental housing for households earning 80% to 120% of area median income (AMI).
For context, the 2026 AMI for a single person in Windham County is $73,300. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the median household income in Brattleboro was $58,241 for the 2020–2024 period. These figures help illustrate why housing attainable to moderate-income working households is so important to our community.
The Village is designed for moderate-income working households - people who often earn too much to qualify for traditional housing subsidies but who still struggle to find housing they can afford in Brattleboro. The privately operated rental homes will provide an attainable option for people whose incomes fall in the middle of the community's housing market.
They include many of the people who make our community function: teachers, healthcare workers, young professionals, small-business employees, public employees, and retirees.
When these residents can find homes they can afford, our entire community benefits. Employers can recruit and retain workers, families can put down roots, and older residents can remain connected to the people and places they know.
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Housing is an important part of building a strong future for Brattleboro. A healthy housing supply supports a healthy local economy and helps communities retain the people and services they depend on.
Brattleboro is working to address population loss, revitalize its downtown, and ensure that essential services - including our hospital - can recruit and retain workers. Preserving those services also means making sure the people who provide them can live in the community.
The first phase of the Village would add 30 new rental homes to a local housing stock that is, on average, more than 70 years old. New housing at this scale and affordability is rare in our community. The project is permitted and has stamped construction drawings. What remains is financing.
Building workforce housing in Vermont requires creative approaches to construction, land, and financing costs. Innovative financing tools can help bridge that gap. Programs such as the Local Investment Advisory Committee (LIAC) through the Vermont Treasurer's Office provide low-interest financing to projects like the Village, and that financing is foundational to making this project viable.
But additional investment is needed. Investors, philanthropists, grant makers, and community partners can all play a role.
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Brattleboro now has an opportunity to move from planning to action. With permitting complete and a substantial amount of funding already in place, the remaining task is to close the financing gap and turn the plan into 30 new homes.
The Village can be one important part of Brattleboro's broader housing solution. We need many kinds of housing, in many locations, for people with different needs and incomes - and we need to move forward when opportunities are ready. The Prouty campus has always been about creating opportunities that strengthen our community. The Village is a natural extension of that mission.
There can be no "us" and "them" when it comes to building Brattleboro's future. It will take employers, developers, investors, philanthropists, government, nonprofits, and community members working together.
Together, we can build a Brattleboro where the people who work here can also afford to live here.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
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