Municipalities throughout the Adirondack Park are looking to build workforce housing to support their growing communities and aging residents, and there’s been a confluence of work to support construction efforts.
Mindy Preuninger is a councilwoman and deputy supervisor from Johnsburg, New York, a town of just over 2,000.
Preuninger was in Schroon Lake earlier this month, to learn more about what it takes to start – and complete – workforce housing developments in small, rural communities like hers.
“So, listening to them to know that that's a piece that can entice those developers, and looking at the work that Gov. Hochul's office has done and offering this housing initiatives that we can revitalize our downtown, build up some of our commercial properties, but yet keep the housing and also elevate some of our local folks that need housing assistance to just bring their houses up to code so that they can maintain and stay in their homes. Is super fun. I'm just excited,” said Preuninger.
Johnsburg’s 11-year sewer infrastructure upgrade project is coming to an end, and Preuninger is optimistic that puts her community in a prime position to build new housing units that are affordable.
“And so what we really need is places where families can move into and that's the piece that's missing, as they talked about today, we have aging, aging folks who are aging in place in larger homes that were family homes, but with the current market values, younger families can't afford to buy those homes,” said Preuninger.
Town of Webb, New York Supervisor Tom Greco says his community is in dire need of more housing options as enrollment at their local high school dwindles.
“Our program nonprofits are doing such an incredible job of keeping us together. But we are, we're tired. And, you know, I've got a lot of young I've got 67 employees of my own, not town employees, through my businesses, year-round, and to see them, you know, struggle with, you know, we pay well for what the work that we're doing, but the opportunity to buy a home is just non-existent. I mean, flat out,” said Greco.
These local officials are in good company – dozens gathered in Schroon Lake for a meeting led by the Adirondack Community Foundation centered on the development of workforce housing projects within the Adirondack Park.
Workforce housing is typically meant for families who earn too much to qualify for housing subsidies but too little to afford market-rate prices. And in the Adirondacks, that’s a growing portion of the population.
This month, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $3 million grant from Empire State Development to help fund new housing options within the park. That investment, along with a matched $500,000 from regional philanthropic organizations, was announced at the ACF’s forum.
“Our thought behind bringing everyone together for this exciting announcement is to really articulate that we have made a lot of progress over the past three years. A lot of the time, this feels like such slow work, so we really wanted to share some really exciting opportunities and to really encourage everyone in the room that we are making progress even if it feels really slow,” said Trombly.
Kim Trombly is the ACF's Community Impact director.
The new funds will support development opportunities intended for households that earn between 120%-200% of the area median income.
The initiative is focused on supporting communities in the Adirondack region with populations of less than 10,000 seeking to add less than 20 units of housing.
“And so, the technical advising pieces is all about trying to get our communities pro housing certified, or look at their zones, zoning regulations to make sure that that everything is on the regulatory side in our towns, municipalities, making sure that it's attractive to housing. And then the pre development pieces is all about looking at the site, making sure that the infrastructure is there, or to do land assessments, or anything that we just need to make sure that the parcel is ready to put a house on it. And then the loan funds that was granted from New York State, that's the $3 million that's going to revolve and that's to really build houses.” said Trombly.
Hochul also announced $15 million in investments into workforce development projects across the state this month, targeting operations that will support high-demand fields like manufacturing and construction.
