Housing group searches for new ways to make homes affordable for locals

MILLERTON — In continuing to explore affordable housing, the Millerton-North East working group of the Tri-Town Coalition turned to two seasoned experts in affordable housing at its monthly virtual meeting on Tuesday, June 8.

Group member Sam Busselle announced it has been getting a more robust response after its last two Zoom meetings with more people willing to help and a growing interest in reviewing local zoning. 

He then introduced Hudson River Housing (HRH) Executive Director Christa Hines. Busselle said Hines would explain some funding options HRH has made use of with past projects.

Even when taking into account the challenges the housing market faced pre-COVID-19 and how those challenges were exacerbated with the pandemic, Hines said there ways to fund projects. Using HRH as an example, she emphasized that the specific project needs to be appropriate for the specific funding.

“Since we’re really trying to find sites, I thought it was important to tie the funding opportunities to the various sites that we’re looking at,” Hines said.

Hines highlighted some of HRH’s main funding sources, with the primary source usually being New York State and its Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program. Describing it as a “competitive but very generous resource,” she said this is the resource that will fund the largest projects, typically ones that are at least 70 units or more.

The second resource HRH uses most often is the Small Building Participating Loan Program, also through New York State. It’s for smaller projects of about five to 40 units. However, Hines said this is for rehabilitation projects only and cannot be used for new construction. 

Nevertheless, she said it’s a great opportunity for multi-family buildings and that the state has relaxed the requirements somewhat to allow people to use adjacent properties for such projects, given the difficulties in finding five-unit properties in the local region.

Sharing with the group a funding source she just recently learned about, Hines shed a light on the Net Zero program funded from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which includes projects of about 20 units, new construction and seeks sites between 1 and 2 acres in size. For one- to four-family homes or single-family homes, she said Dutchess County’s HOME Investment Partnership Program, in which the county awards grants to acquire and rehab smaller housing projects fits such requirements.

Following Hines’ presentation, Busselle then introduced architect Dennis Wedlick, whom he described as “a passionate participant in designing affordable homes as well as carbon neutral homes.” 

Wedlick praised the Coalition’s accomplishment in raising awareness and building community support for finding affordable housing in the region.

Choosing to talk the affordable housing issue as an energy problem, Wedlick explained that one of the reasons it might be helpful to consider it from a different angle is to think about different potential partners who could help find solutions, such as NYSERDA. 

He also spoke about it as an ecological problem. In talking about the conservation of the rural landscape, Wedlick said  a rural workforce is needed, but can’t be sustained without people living in rural communities.

As he moved through his presentation, Wedlick covered other angles — such as open space, high density versus low density living and rural workforce housing — to help encourage new thinking going forward. 

Drawing from his experience in working with housing in Columbia County along with his knowledge of low-income housing through working on case studies for Habitat for Humanity, Wedlick recommended that the Coalition examine the housing issue one case study at a time, a tactic he said would help get architects and engineers involved with future projects.