Virtual forum evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on rural housing

DUTCHESS COUNTY — COVID-19 has had an impact on many things, including rural housing. Residents of northeastern Dutchess County shared their insights on such challenges at a virtual community forum on the issue on Tuesday, Sept. 22, hosted by the Tri-Town Coalition and Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress. 

Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress Senior Vice President for Research, Development & Community Planning Joe Czajka said the aim was to focus on the challenges of rural housing in “today’s unbelievable times in terms of health, the economy, social discord and unrest.”

Having worked in community development and housing for just over 30 years, Czajka said he’s been involved in revitalizing communities after minor and major recessions, natural disasters and a housing bubble that burst and resulted in thousands of Hudson Valley families losing their homes to foreclosure.

“Today we’re facing incredible devastation in terms of our health, housing, education, employment and the economy,” Czajka said. “The impact of COVID-19 touches every aspect of our lives.”

Highlighting the reopening of the New York State economy, he touched on the increased business taking place in downtown areas; the impact on the supply chain for food and home improvement items; how working and learning remotely has become commonplace; and how essential workers have evolved as a vital part of the economy. 

Recognizing a pent-up demand for goods and services in the current economy, Czajka demonstrated what plummeting revenues and municipal cuts will mean for the economy and how local, county and state budgets will be significantly impacted without federal aid. He said the Hudson Valley’s economy relies heavily on tourism and the industry’s related businesses, though the industry doesn’t offer a living wage rate. While some businesses have been relocating from New York City to the Hudson Valley, traditional business models and office space demands have changed, he said.

The housing market

Focusing on the housing market, Czajka said that the 2020 real estate market started out strong before COVID-19, with strong sales, modest gains and an estimated 4% unemployment rate. Among the drastic changes to the real estate industry in the past seven months, he said there’s now a “nervous” market between both buyer and seller, along with virtual showings, businesses shutting down and challenges in getting repairs and improvements done. For those looking to buy a home who were fortunate to keep their jobs, the demand for homes was high and the supply was limited.

Czajka explained that housing is said to be affordable when a person pays no more than 30% of their gross income toward housing. Over 30% is considered cost burdened while over 50% is considered severely cost burdened. 

Considering the number of households across Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster Counties, about 41,255 households have been identified as severely cost burdened across the five counties. 

Out of those 41,255 households, 18,245 households in Dutchess County were identified severely cost burdened; breaking down the number of Dutchess County households, 17% were labeled as severely cost burdened while 19.8% were identified as cost burdened and 63.2% were identified as affordable. 

Czajka also shared data showing a decline in monthly rent throughout the five counties and discussed the pandemic’s impact on the rental market. Overall, he said one of the keys to normalizing the economy is to get people safely back to work and raise consumer and employee confidence levels. 

Community development

Sharing her thoughts on the intersections of housing, Sarah Kacker, director of rural initiatives for NeighborWorks America, explained that NeighborWorks America looks at housing within the context of comprehensive community development and aspires to create “strong, resilient communities of opportunity.” She said COVID-19 brought to light many of the other issues beyond housing (such as education, childcare and economic development) that make up resilient communities and allowed NeighborWorks America to further deepen those intersections and relationships while considering how those intersections have been impacted.

Kacker spotlighted the increase in housing prices as well as the issues with food insecurity, challenges with broadband accessibility and how childcare has become a major roadblock to bringing people into a more normalized work environment. When asked by Czajka to consider ways rural communities in particular might leverage some of those community changes, she recommended capitalizing on new sources of funding as well as increasing partnerships, perhaps using broadband as a potential economic and community development tool.

From a design stance

As COVID-19 hit, Patricia Gruits, the senior principal and manager director for MASS Design Group, said the MASS Design Group team questioned what it meant to design safe spaces and, with some of their healthcare partners, was asked to provide guidance on best practices for infection control to meet the urgent needs of its communities. 

The team ended up having meaningful conversations with its partners about this dilemma, she said, and the question became a matter of how to design for safe interaction and not for social isolation. Sharing the group’s work in designing senior housing for safe interaction, Gruits said the team identified basic strategies for infection control that were applicable across many housing situations, while recognizing the challenge of grasping all the different variations of housing to create one guideline.

“Some of the things that we learned is this is not a ‘one size fits all’ situation,” Gruits said, “but the guide introduces prompts really to help residents, property managers and visitors determine where their threshold lies and key factors to be aware of to maintain infection control.”

Gruits also took the time to talk about what her organization has gained from the public realm in terms of the impact COVID-19 has had on housing in Boston, Mass.

Local input

Providing the forum’s audience with context on what residents living in the communities of North East/Millerton, Amenia and Pine Plains have experienced, Millerton Village Trustee Joshua Schultz said housing was a big issue in the area long before COVID-19 hit. Schultz said it “only started to become addressed when those who had the time and the resources to act realized that the residents that we now know as essential workers were leaving at an alarming rate or living in substandard housing.” 

While he said he’s been fortunate with his own housing situation, Schultz reminded the public that they “always need to be mindful to meaningfully engage, not just listen to the communities that are affected by this because they’re not always able to participate in these discussions due to familial and financial obligations, and as a result they wind up disengaging.”

Sharing his personal observations, Schultz talked about the surge of residents coming to the region from New York City and Westchester County and how that surge has placed a bigger strain on the area’s housing stock. In addition, he shared how housing and rentals that were once reasonable have “now become just the opposite,” as many people are now moving into the area with the changing job situation.

The forum then opened up, inviting residents to share their perspectives and ask questions. 

Those who missed the live webinar on Tuesday evening can watch it online through the “Pattern For Progress” YouTube channel.