With affordable housing at a premium, a New York state program is aiming to offset elevated home prices.
Last fall, New York Governor Kathy Hochul launched the "Pro-Housing Communities Program" to fast track $650 million in state funds to villages, towns, and counties that demonstrate a commitment to increasing housing inventory.
So far, more than 300 communities have submitted letters of intent while 75 communities have met all requirements, according to RuthAnne Visnauskas is Commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
"We're really excited about the program, you know, we think it really provides a benefit to communities around the state that are looking at where their housing stock, and as the housing Commissioner, certainly, everywhere I go, it is one of the number one issues that people certainly talk to me about, and I think generally talking about, at the municipal level that there's not enough housing," said Visnauskas. "Rents are increasing. Home prices are increasing faster than incomes, and so people are getting sort of increasingly priced out of the housing market at all levels. And so we really see that one of the sort of solutions to that is increasing supply, sort of everywhere and of all types, right? Housing for young people looking for their first place to rent, for small families looking to grow into a larger home, for seniors looking to downsize, you know, really every kind of type of housing. So we think providing, as we sort of did in this year's budget, $650 million of discretionary funds, is a way to sort of reward the communities that are applying to us and getting certified to give them resources that they can use to invest back into their localities."
Under the program, localities that submit documentation that their housing stock has increased by one percent in the previous year or 3 percent over the previous three years downstate, or by 0.33 percent in the last year or 1 percent over the previous three years upstate, will qualify for the certification. Communities that have not yet seen housing growth can also achieve Pro-Housing Community designation by passing a resolution stating their commitment to “pro-housing” principles along with submitting the required housing and zoning data.
"But we have a lot of people coming to us," Visnauskas said. "We also make ourselves very available in terms of webinars and meetings and calls to provide technical assistance. Talk through the process, people get stuck, you know, we want to work with them on that. We know that some localities that are very small, don't necessarily always have enough staff to handle the data, like, you know, getting us the permit data, so we are working directly with those localities so we can support them. We want people to be successful here. We certainly don't want you know if there's barriers that we can help overcome. We want to make sure we're doing that as the state.”
According to the website REDFIN, in June 2024, home prices in the town of Guilderland were up 23.9% compared to the previous year, selling for a median price of $480,000.
Town Planner Ken Kovalchik says Guilderland is the first municipality in Albany County to be certified as a Pro-Housing Community, which opens up the ability to apply for several funding programs.
"One of the underlying initiatives with the pro-housing designation is the state is looking for those communities to really take the lead at providing a diversity of housing," Kovalchik said. "So that could be, you know, single-family, multi-family, town homes, condos, promoting all of the above. One of the concerns we've heard throughout our year and a half-long town comprehensive plan update thus far, is housing affordability, and that's also one of the items that this pro-housing designation is looking for municipalities to tackle. It is something we are addressing as part of our comprehensive plan update. We have had some projects in the past that were proposing affordable housing but were reliant on state grant funds, and unfortunately, in the past, those projects have been denied. So one of my goals is by achieving this designation, that in the future, if we have projects that are incorporating affordability into it, and they're reliant on state grant funding, that by having this pro-housing designation now, hopefully those projects will be supported at the state level to achieve that grant funding.”
Kovalchik says housing diversity is complicated because only 1 percent of town land is zoned for apartments, with some 60 percent zoned for single-family dwellings.
Still, Visnauskas is confident the pro-housing program will flourish across New York.
“This is really about supporting communities to provide housing options for, again, sort of people all across the spectrum that are looking for different types of housing options, and we understand that communities need a lot of resources to be ready for that, and are through this $650 million making a big effort to do that. And I think we'll continue to grow the program to make sure that as there's other needs that come up, that we can continue to support communities that are growing their housing stock," said Visnauskas.
