Former Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger is leading an internship course focused on Vermont’s housing shortage at UVM this semester.
In the one-credit course, “Finding a Path to 30,000 New Vermont Homes,” students will meet with housing experts, write policy memos and prepare presentations for the Student Research Conference in April.
“It’s very focused on what I perceive as one of the largest challenges Vermont faces right now, which is our shortage of housing,” Weinberger said. “It’s something I’ve worked on one way or another pretty much throughout my whole professional career.”
Weinberger, a former affordable housing developer, was first elected mayor of Burlington in 2012 and served four terms until leaving office in 2024. He’s also the executive chair of Let’s Build Homes, a housing advocacy group launched in January.
Weinberger has found that students recognize the impact of the shortage on those seeking off-campus housing and those who intend to stay in Vermont after graduation.
The 30,000 figure in the course title comes from a needs assessment published by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, Weinberger said.
The report, dated June 2024, stated that Vermont needs 24,000 to 36,000 new “primary homes” in the next five years.
“After decades of very slow growth, demand to live in Vermont year-round began to increase in 2017 and picked up further in 2020,” the report stated. “Combined with a slow pace of home building and elevated construction costs, vacancy rates declined to near record levels, home prices and rents jumped and homelessness increased dramatically.”
The 11-student class meets weekly, and guest speakers have included Maura Collins, executive director of VHFA, and Alex Farrell, commissioner of the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
At the end of the semester, policy memos students draft in the class may be shared publicly with state legislators and others working on housing.
“It could actually be an opportunity for students to have an experience at influencing the way public policy gets crafted on housing,” Weinberger said.
Along with the internship, Weinberger is the spring 2025 Scholar in Residence at the Patrick Leahy Honors College, according to a Jan. 14 email from PLHC Dean David Jenemann to PLHC students.
The role focuses on the internship and is intended to last through the end of the semester, during which Weinberger will serve as a resource for the college, he said.
Weinberger said he has known Jenemann socially and professionally for years, and they collaborated on the Mayor’s Book Group launched in 2014 when Jenemann was co-director of the University’s Humanities Center.
When Weinberger left office last year, he talked with Jenemann about how they could collaborate and build on the Honors College’s focus on civic conversations, he said.
The internship program was established when the Honors College received a $30 million endowment in 2023 from federal funds secured by outgoing U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, Jenemann said. In May 2023, the board of trustees approved naming the Honors College after Leahy.
“Thinking about some of our own mission, vision and values, which focuses on civic engagement, service learning, student activity in the community, as well as the legacy of the Senator, we thought it would be a great idea to start to provide students opportunities to engage with some of the pressing challenges that our communities are facing,” Jenemann said.
Along with the internship, the PLHC developed a minor in civic engagement, which was recently approved by the board of trustees and will be open to all UVM students starting next catalogue year, Jenemann said.
The internship differs from a traditional class, Jenemann said.
“The students are meeting on a weekly basis with Miro to talk about the issue, to learn about the issue, read about the issue, but they’re also working on the issue in the way that someone involved in public service would work on it,” Jenemann said.
Junior Eliot Barrengos, Cynic sports writer and a community and international development major, said that he was drawn to the internship because he felt housing was an important state and national issue, and he wanted to understand housing policy.
“We’ve been talking about macro community development, which is what housing policy is, and so that’s the stuff that’s right up my alley,” he said.
Senior Penelope Keane, a public communication major, said her favorite part of the class was talking with fellow students who are experiencing the housing crisis as well as the guest speakers in the class.
“I think it’s been so refreshing actually having conversations rather than being lectured at,” she said.
