Five housing projects in the Finger Lakes region will receive more than $44 million in state funding in the move to expand and protect housing supply.
Early this week, Gov. Kathy Hochul awarded a total $260 million through tax credits and subsidies to create or preserve 1,852 affordable, supportive and sustainable homes. These projects span 29 developments statewide.
“The only way to address New York’s housing crisis and bring down costs for families is to keep building and preserving homes in every region of our state,” Hochul says. “With this funding, we are pushing forward with our agenda to unlock New York’s housing potential, and we will keep working closely with the Legislature to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to safe, stable, and affordable homes.”
Most of the awarded projects will use a total of $11 million from the Clean Energy Initiative, a partnership with New York State Homes and Community Renewal and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The CEI funds target higher levels of sustainability and carbon reduction. In an effort to close the digital divide, these developments will offer free broadband services to residents.
These are the projects In the Finger Lakes region:
■ Beechwood Family Apartments ($8.4 million): Located in the city of Rochester, the project expects to create 54 new homes across 21 buildings on vacant sites in that neighborhood. The project will assign 12 apartments as supportive housing. It will also get $297,000 from the Clean Energy Initiative program.
■ Churchview Commons ($9 million): A 45-unit development in the city includes 24 apartments set aside for homeless individuals and families in need of supportive services. Churchview Commons, a Pathstone Housing Action Corp. project also gets $247,500 in CEI funds.
■ Creekview Apartments II ($2.6 million): This Canandaigua development by Baldwin Real Estate development has 72 apartments in nine two-story buildings. Eight of these apartments are reserved for individuals with physical disabilities. Already a NYSERDA Building of Excellence awardee, Creekview Apartments will meet passive house standards through the inclusion of on-site solar electric and geothermal heating systems, officials say.
■ Southridge Landing ($11.5 million): A mixed-use development, Southridge Landing in Henrietta has 62 apartments including 20 for families in need of supportive services. This Dakota Partners project gets $341,000 in CEI funds.
■ True North Apartments ($12.8 million): This project, with 70 apartments in two residential sites, has half of the residences designated as supportive units for chronically homeless households and seniors. An outpatient wellness clinic is also part of the DePaul Properties’ development, which is expected to provide services to the community. The project will receive $385,000 in CEI funds as well.
The funding is part of Hochul’s $25 billion comprehensive Housing Plan which aims to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes across the state. It also includes 10,000 homes with supportive services for vulnerable populations and the electrification of an additional 50,000 residences, officials say.
Financing for these projects is allocated by New York State Homes and Community Renewal, which provided $56 million in federal and state low income housing tax credits and $204 million in subsidy.
Smriti Jacob is Rochester Beacon managing editor. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to [email protected].
Socialistic leaders take our taxpayer money and gives it to non-taxpayers who they expect to politically align with them, citing a never-ending litany of social goods as justification. This works politically until we wise up or the system goes broke. In this case the free money will be used to build tacky government- managed structures which quickly become slums and a breeding ground for unhealthy social conditions. We have seen this movie many times before. This is a social evil, not a social good. Government funding and control of housing has no legitimate role in a free democracy / republic. It endangers the capitalism that has made America great. Our capitalism now really is in danger of collapsing under the weight of the huge debt Congress has allowed- we are indeed running out of money, with more borrowing / GDP than needed to win WWII. What did we get for all that money? Social unrest. Vote these self-serving imposters of honest politicians out of office. The private sector has proven both more efficient at serving the real housing needs of society and is far superior at creating the healthful communities and types of housing that people really want and need. Talk to some of the residents of the existing “projects” in our community. Say “no” to this madness at the ballot box.
Question: by what authority does money approved for one purpose get moved to another without another approval process and a clear statement of need? Last statistics I saw indicated that our population in NY is decreasing, so what justification for more public housing? Could this pivot be sub-rosa motivated by the weight of illegal aliens we are all supporting in our “sanctuary” city?
Dr. Anstadt: The funds that support these developments come from both the public and private sector, many through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and Community Development Block Grant programs, enacted into law during the Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford administrations, respectively (which could hardly be described as “socialistic”). Both programs passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. The benefits of both public and private investment are combined, including the private investor’s (typically a local bank) interest in a quality building which helps to offset the government’s propensity to spend the least possible (leading to poor quality in earlier fully public-funded housing). Federal support is combined with state and local control of how those monies are spent so that projects respond to communities’ unique needs. The government neither owns nor manages the resulting buildings. No program is perfect, but together these programs have helped to improve housing stock for all (including for those who can pay full market-rate, as well as for those who require supportive housing). (Would you say that the disabled and other vulnerable people are better off living on the streets or in temporary shelters?) Meanwhile, NYS, as is true for much of the country, lacks sufficient housing stock. One place to learn more about this is the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Feb 7, 2023 report “Housing Supply and the Drivers of Homelessness.” What do you believe our communities should do to address this lack? Meanwhile, I would not be surprised to learn that you, like I, are or have been the beneficiary of one of the single largest federal government handouts: the mortgage interest tax deduction. See the Bipartisan Policy Center’s site for more information on the costs of that tax program. Has that program helped or hurt?