Competing visions of Rochester housing

As housing costs rise, inventory supply lags demand, and the path to homeownership becomes more precarious, all candidates in next month’s Democratic primary for Rochester mayor agree that housing is one of the most important issues in this election.

Mayor Malik Evans calls it “critical for the stability of residents and our city as a whole.”

City councilmember and avowed progressive Mary Lupien says a lack of affordable housing has caused “heartbreaking” situations and is “unfortunately, not new.”

“In the past 10 years since I’ve lived on Parsell’s Avenue, my neighbors are getting pushed out as housing costs are rising,” she says. “It’s something that we’ve been trying to get on the city’s radar for a long time and they’ve dismissed it. While we were arguing and worrying about what (gentrifying) meant, there were people who were being displaced.

“My neighbor was displaced and she’s living with one of my other neighbors because that’s the type of place we are,” adds Lupien. “But she has just been begging, ‘please help me find an affordable place to live.’ And I don’t know what to tell her.”

Political newcomer Shashi Sinha notes that housing is a nationwide issue, but adds that Rochester is particularly vulnerable.

“Twenty-six percent of (Rochester residents) are living in poverty,” he says. “Rents have continued to go really, really high, and housing costs are out of reach for most folks.”

The three candidates will face off in the Democratic primary on June 24, in a contest that will likely decide the victor in the November general election. Their views on how to create affordable housing could be a decisive factor for some voters.

Evans pitches his plan on housing as a continuation of his administration’s successful programs. He points to significant investment in building new units citywide, financial programs for homeownership, and partnerships with support organizations as distinct achievements.

Lupien believes even more can be accomplished if she is elected mayor. She lists building more starter homes that are taxpayer-friendly, protecting tenants’ rights, keeping rent affordable, and providing better support to vulnerable populations as development occurs in Rochester.

“There are solutions out there, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she says. “We just need to have the political will to be able to change what we’ve always done.”

Sinha’s housing also is ambitious. It includes transforming city-owned vacant land into 4,000 units of housing over four years. He says his housing plan is intertwined with his other platform priorities of public safety, education, hypergrowth, and reform.

“All these things, they are connected,” says Sinha. “The goal is not just to build up one house or give one job, but build up the whole neighborhood.”

Homeownership challenges

According to U.S. census data estimates, the number of occupied housing units in Rochester has actually increased in recent years, rising 6.6 percent from 2010 to 2023.

Buying a home in Rochester has become more and more expensive, however. Data from the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors shows that the median sale price in the city has jumped from around $102,000 in 2018 to $148,000 in 2024—a 45 percent increase. (Through the first quarter of 2025, the median sale price has been around $154,000.)

As prices have been surging, GRAR data shows that Rochester’s active housing inventory has either plateaued or declined. April had an active inventory of 195 homes, one of the lowest monthly totals of the last few years.

Even with these challenges, Evans sees progress in the various homeownership programs established since he became mayor. The Employer Assisted Housing Initiative, for example, partners with almost a dozen employers who provide financial support to first-time homebuyers in their workforce. The city matches employers’ funding for closing costs.

“This initiative saw a welcome boost last year when the University of Rochester, our largest employer, raised its assistance level from $9,000 to $20,000,” Evans says.

The mayor also says the capacity of the Rochester Land Bank is ramping up, the network of qualified developers is expanding, and the Office of Financial Empowerment is rolling out its Positive Rent Reporting pilot, which will enable renters in participating housing to include histories of on-time rent payments in their credit ratings.

To increase housing supply, Evans says, the next phase is “the continuation of spurring single-family home construction and the conversion of former commercial structures into homes.”

“We completed construction on multiple homes in the Northeast section of the city, and last year we broke ground on dozens more in the Southwest quadrant,” he notes. “To build on the momentum of Buy the Block, we deliberately kicked it off in the Upper Falls Neighborhood to harness the energy of several other investments that are taking place in that area.”

The Buy the Block effort started in 2021 as one of former Mayor Lovely Warren’s final pieces of submitted legislation. The project planned to build 100 homes for low-income families in an act of “greenlining,” a term used for investing in historically disinvested neighborhoods by converting vacant lots to single-family houses.

So far, around 20 homes have been completed in Northeast Rochester, with construction in progress on about 30 more in the Southwest quadrant.

Evans’ challengers are skeptical of Buy the Block’s cost efficiency and its impact on Rochester’s housing stock.

Lupien says a $500,000-per-unit price tag on Buy the Block construction is inefficient. Instead, she supports modular housing construction, where a home is constructed primarily offsite, and building smaller, starter homes meant to be expanded gradually.

“Big developers are the ones who are really profiting the most,” says Lupien. “When we spend $13 million in COVID recovery money to build 37 houses, all of that money goes into the hands of the construction companies and developers that contribute to campaigns.”

She also wants to make it easier for smaller housing developers to compete for builds by streamlining processes. Expanding access to rehab grants and prioritizing critical improvements will help keep owners in their homes instead of becoming renters or suffering from homelessness.

Sinha also criticizes the Buy the Block price per unit, going further to say that the number of homes is an unambitious plan.

“Even if you look into luxury housing, (Buy the Block’s cost) is higher than that. The idea is good, but it’s such a waste of money,” he says. “And it’s great for the residents who are able to buy it. But it’s a drop in the bucket.

“It’s not a housing plan,” he adds. “It’s a lottery.”

Instead, Sinha wants to build 4,000 units over his four years as mayor. To achieve this, he says, he will use vacant lots owned by the city or land bank to build modular homes while also circumnavigating the traditional development process. Instead of a developer and contractor, the city itself will build homes across the over 2,100 city-owned lots classified as “residential vacant land” or “residential with improvements.”

Sinha wants to use local residents for this endeavor, including giving youth, and unhoused or formerly incarcerated people a chance at employment. He claims it will create 500 to 700 jobs, move 8,000 to 10,000 people from renting to owning, and cost only $80,000 to $110,000 per home.

(Buy the Block homes cost $100,000 to $150,000 for homebuyers at or below 80 percent of area median income.)

“This is going to be transformational for us,” Sinha says. “We know that when ownership is high, people take care of their houses, crime goes down, (and) the neighborhood looks nicer because people are invested in those neighborhoods. So, overall, the quality of life will go up.”

Sinha believes he can accomplish this plan without being dependent on grants or money from the state. He says his work on a revolving loan system and vertical integration was one of the first things he came up with before deciding to run for mayor.

Although his plan is for the city to build these homes, Sinha still wants to attract developers as well and says he will eliminate red tape in the approval process.

Helping renters

The census estimates that Rochester had slightly more than 91,000 occupied housing units in 2023. The balance of those units is weighted toward renter-occupied over owner-occupied, with around 63 percent rental units as of 2023.

“That is extremely high for a city of our size,” Sinha says. “It’s counterintuitive, but when you become a rental city, rent continues to go up instead of coming down. That’s what we are seeing.”

Evans touts his efforts on behalf of renters, saying that since 2022, his projects represent a “remarkable investment” of nearly $1.5 billion in affordable housing and more than $300 million in market-rate development.

“My administration has started or completed projects to build or renovate close to 5,000 affordable and market-rate rental units. We’ve also created more than 450,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial space,” says Evans, listing several examples. “Projects like Zion Hill Senior Apartments on Dr. Samuel McCree Way, Edna Craven Estates on Clifford Avenue, and 270 on East, at the corner of East Avenue and Charlotte Street.

“Projects set for completion this year—this year,” he emphatically repeats—“include Tailor Square in the old Hickey Freeman Building on North Clinton Avenue; Center City Courtyard, at the corner of Main Street and Plymouth Avenue; and Alta Vista on Franklin Street near St. Joseph’s Park in downtown.”

He also mentions projects in early stages of development, including the Hotel Cadillac, the Edwards Building, and 125 Howell Street, one of the last remaining parcels of the Inner Loop East redevelopment project.

In contrast, his opponents are dubious about the effectiveness of some of these projects.

For example, many new apartments are the popular “5-over-1” model, a multifamily residential building consisting of a ground floor for retail or amenities built on concrete topped with four or five stories of wood framing, which is cheaper to purchase. The ease and cost efficiency of that construction is not passed onto residents, though, Evans’ challengers argue.

“We give the contracts to big developers, they bring in people from outside, people who don’t even live in Rochester. They make good wages, the developers make money, what do we get as residents of the city?” says Sinha. “We’re stuck with paying the high rents.”

In addition, Evans’ challengers question whether these units are affordable for current city residents. Lupien is worried that development and gentrification will force out the old neighborhoods.

“The danger in focusing on investment in lower-income neighborhoods is that, if you aren’t intentional, you will create displacement,” says Lupien. “And I’m very worried about the Inner Loop right now with that.

“This is a neighborhood that was destroyed because of putting a highway through it to moat off downtown. This neighborhood they rebuilt in terms of their community,” she continues. “So, now we’re talking about putting all this new development in the neighborhood, we’re going to push people out and displace people all over again, but this time because of the cost of housing.”

Rents within the downtown core, which includes Inner Loop East, have risen steadily following the COVID-19 pandemic. The Zillow Observed Rent Index shows that since 2020, monthly rents in the area have increased 35 percent, or close to $300. Since 2016, they have risen 58 percent.

“They’ve been trying to be involved with the development plans. To varying degrees, I think they feel unheard,” Lupien adds about the Inner Loop neighborhood.

To better help renters, she seeks to carry on with efforts already begun during her time on City Council.

Good Cause legislation passed earlier this year mandates that many property landlords must demonstrate “good cause” in housing court before evicting or choosing not to renew a lease for tenants.

She believes further legislation could include a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase act, which gives tenants the right to make the first offer on their building if the landlord decides to sell it; a Right to Counsel law, which guarantees legal representation in eviction cases for low-income tenants; and establishing rent control in the city under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act.

“(TOPA) would stop the bleeding of our properties to these large corporate landlords that are buying up places like in Northeast Rochester,” Lupien says.

She adds that City Council is already moving toward conducting a vacancy study, the first step in determining if rent control is possible. A previous study in 2021 that did not require landlord participation had a response rate of only 37 percent. Since then, a new state law includes penalties for nonparticipation, spurring this new effort.

Rising homelessness

Nearly 40 percent of households in Rochester in 2023 were classified as cost-burdened, where families were spending more than 30 percent of their monthly income on housing.

Renter-occupied households are more likely to fall in that category; historically, over half of all renters in the city are also cost-burdened. Since the pandemic, there has been a slight downward trend in census data, which is at odds with the lived experiences some candidates have heard from constituents.

“We know more people are being displaced. Both street homelessness and hidden homelessness, like couchsurfing or doubling up, is on the rise,” says Lupien.               

Department of Housing and Urban Development data shows that Rochester experienced its highest recorded level of homelessness last year: 1,056 people were included in HUD’s 2024 “point-in-time” estimate, overtaking the previous highest figure of 1,007 in 2013. 

Evans acknowledges this is a growing problem and says existing partnerships are a key part of his approach on this issue.

“The inclusion of supportive housing is another essential element of our housing strategy,” Evans says. “By partnering with human service agencies like Spiritus Christi, Trillium Health, and Eagle Star Housing, residents with challenges like those returning from incarceration, or veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, can receive the care they need right where they live.”

Recently, issues involving Family Service Communities, an organization providing enriched housing for seniors at the Danforth and Hudson Ridge towers, means those residents are at risk of losing their homes. Each candidate spoke out against the situation.

“While these Towers are not operated by the City of Rochester, we have an obligation to ensure our residents are treated with dignity and do not lose access to quality housing and important support services,” Evans said in a statement, adding that he is speaking with people at the state level.

“They ran away with people’s money,” says Lupien. “And it seems (Rochester Housing Authority) knew they were struggling for a while. If they had communicated or acted, maybe this could have been prevented.”

“It is an outrage and what is happening would not happen on my watch,” Sinha says.

For people experiencing homelessness, Sinha says conversations with Sister Grace Miller have been valuable for putting the issue in perspective.

“In an average year, we’re seeing about 200 individuals (in street homelessness situations). There are 50-plus organizations in the city and county who are trying to take care of this. Everyone is doing their own thing, (but) there isn’t really true coordination,” he contends. “If we need 200 beds, that should be no big deal, it should be a solvable issue.”

Sinha believes the city can easily provide that number and plans to bring the various organizations together for more efficient coordination.

Lupien wants to end the policy of encampment sweeps, which can result in service providers losing track of unhoused individuals.

She also would work to establish a Housing First model. The approach would prioritize providing supportive, noncongregate housing to those experiencing homelessness over placing people into the shelter system.

“It’s actually cheaper to pay rent for someone than it is to subsidize a shelter bed,” she says. “That’s without mentioning how hard it is to thrive in an environment like that.”

Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.

The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing  [email protected]