Join the Fair Housing Project of CVOEO, Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, Vermont Human Rights Commission, and Vermont Legal Aid to learn more about Fair Housing Month, housing justice, how the state is addressing the current housing crisis, and how librarians can best connect people who are experiencing evictions to local and statewide resources and services. This session is open to everyone and will include a Q&A session.

Presented by the Vermont Department of Libraries with guests Jess Hyman of CVOEO, David Martins of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, Bor Yang of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, and Brooke Stellman of Vermont Legal Aid.

Vermont libraries are in the unique position to facilitate community-level change on issues of social, racial, and economic justice and to help people become more involved in local decision-making on all issues, including housing. Libraries are also a point of access for information and resource sharing. Connecting people experiencing housing challenges to related local, statewide, and national resources is a powerful contribution libraries can make to their communities. To support libraries interested in this work, VTLIB also encourages librarians to view the recently recorded WebJunction webinars linked below on libraries and the current eviction crisis.

Email khotellingbml@gmail.com to sign up.

Community Housing Discussion

In honor of Fair Housing Month and in conjunction with the The Fair Housing Project (FHP) of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO).

This community conversation builds on the April 9 Race for Profit book discussion with a community conversation on local housing needs and policy facilitated by Jess Hyman of the CVOEO Fair Housing Project.

This is part of the Blake Memorial Library's “Systemic: Racism in America” Book Discussion Series sponsored by The Vermont Humanities Council and facilitated by Suzanne Brown.

Email khotellingbml@gmail.com to get the Zoom link.

More info at https://blakememorial.org/

Join the Charlotte Public Library and Shelburne Pierson Library for a discussion about “Priced Out: 15 Years of Gentrification in Portland, Oregon.” This film looks at how new investments in urban neighborhoods are just the latest chapter in a long history of institutional discrimination that has sought to isolate and exclude minorities. As central city neighborhoods continues to change all across the nation, more and more poor, working and middle class residents of all colors and backgrounds are finding themselves priced out of the inner city and the American Dream.

Lydia Clemmons of the Clemmons Family Farm, one of the few African-American-owned farms in Vermont, starts us off with an update on the farm and strategies the family is using to hold onto the farm even as property taxes rise and pressure mounts to sell. Jess Hyman then facilitates a discussion of the documentary Priced Out: Portland’s History of Segregation and Redlining. Please consider watching Priced Out (1 hr.) and Out of the Ashes, Born Again (6 min.) prior to the discussion. Both are available free on YouTube.

Facilitated by Jess Hyman, Fair Housing Project of CVOEO, with Introduction by Lydia Clemmons, Clemmons Family Farm. This event is part of April Fair Housing Month in collaboration with the Clemmons Family Farm, Fair Housing Project of CVOEO, and Pierson Library.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqfu6grTkqHNIIPePj170v_hlbphx7ruTf

This discussion has been cancelled, but we encourage you to watch the film. If you would like to learn more about homeownership rates nationally and in Vermont and access housing data based on race and other factors, visit:

• Vermont Housing Data (community profiles and town/county/state data on population, household, income, employment, homeownership, rental housing, housing needs, and more): https://www.housingdata.org/

• Vermont 2020-2025 Housing Needs Assessment (includes fact sheets on demographics, housing stock, race, homelessness, and more): https://accd.vermont.gov/housing/plansdata-rules/needs-assessment

• https://www.ownedfilm.com/data

• Homeownership dat by race (US Census Quarterly Report): https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf

Please join us for a Zoom discussion of the documentary “Owned: A Tale of Two Americas-The Dark History Behind the US Housing Economy.” Facilitated by Mary Danko, Director of the Fletcher Free Library, and a representative from the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity Fair Housing Project

This film is available through the Library's video subscription service, Kanopy. Anyone with a Fletcher Free Library card can stream if for free here - https://fletcherfree.org/StreamingVideo. A DVD is available for loan, also.

Contact Mary Danko at mdanko@burlingtonvt.gov to register for this virtual program which will be held on Zoom.

Join the Pierson Library and Charlotte Public Library for a discussion of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. Kevin Unrath, librarian at Pierson Library in Shelburne, will moderate the discussion. Copies are available at the Charlotte and Pierson libraries.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYoc-CurzMtGNazuDcCBNhXR9u8mR2ml1Gt

This in-person, outdoor StoryWalk features the “A Chair For My Mother” by Vera B. Williams. Stop by any time during the afternoon and enjoy free ice cream!

Presented in partnership with Rural Edge and NEKCA and sponsored by the Vermont Department of Libraries.

Groton Free Public Library
1304 Scott Highway, Groton, VT 05046
(802) 584-3358
grotonlibraryvt@gmail.com

https://grotonlibraryvt.org/

Pre-recorded Storytime that will go live on Monday, April 12th @ 10:30am        

Video presented on Facebook, YouTube and our www.essexfreelibrary.org       

Our Youth Services Librarian will select three picture books that touch on the topic of Home/Fair Housing, and read them via video.  https://www.essexvt.org/832/Kids-Families

Race for Profit : How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

In honor of Fair Housing Month and in conjunction with the The Fair Housing Project (FHP) of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO).

“Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s 2019 book, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership. Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned. The same racist structures and individuals remained intact after redlining’s end, and close relationships between regulators and the industry created incentives to ignore improprieties……Race for Profit emerges as a necessary addition to the housing canon, expanding existing understandings of discrimination and advocating for a radical re-envisioning of our approach to housing.”

This is part of the Blake Memorial Library's “Systemic: Racism in America” Book Discussion Series sponsored by The Vermont Humanities Council and facilitated by Suzanne Brown.

Email khotellingbml@gmail.com to sign up.

More info at https://blakememorial.org/