Two nonprofit groups providing affordable housing to residents in the mid-Hudson Valley have been awarded federal grants from NeighborWorks America, which distributes money to 260 nonprofit organizations in the U.S. RUPCO, based in Kingston, will receive $237,500, of which $100,000 will be allocated to supporting the home ownership program, $50,000 for real estate acquisitions and $87,500 for general operations.
Hudson River Housing Services, which is based in Poughkeepsie and provides multifamily rental units, home ownership for low-income people and residences for homeless people in Dutchess County, is receiving $87,500, of which $20,000 will support the home ownership program and $67,500 will go toward general operations. The operational grant “is precious money,” said executive director Gail Webster. “We can use it administratively, for instance to buy or upgrade computers or bring on another staff person. It helps make us stronger.”
Webster said her group has a $6.2 million operating budget and $10 million worth of capital funds. Hudson River Housing Services owns and maintains a 350 rental unit, and it also has built and sold 35 houses to first-time homebuyers. She said last year the organization served 3,700 people and there are waiting lists for the home ownership program. It also maintains a 60-bed shelter in Poughkeepsie along with a 12-bed shelter in the city for runaway youths.
Kevin O”™Connor, executive director at RUPCO, said Gov. Eliot Spitzer”™s proposed $400 million Housing Opportunity Fund is long overdue. “The state”™s housing dollars have been virtually stuck for 20 years. This is huge. We”™re finally catching up to places with much more construction, such as New Jersey and California.”
In other states, building affordable housing is much less difficult than in New York, he said. For example, “in Massachusetts the burden is put on municipalities as to why an affordable project shouldn”™t be built. The burden is reversed and the developer doesn”™t have to prove” why it”™s needed, he said.
O”™Connor said the state money is even more important given that at the federal level, funding has been “woefully disappointing. The Bush Administration had gutted many programs, such as Section 8 and the Community Development Block Grants.” Congress restores the cuts each year, but “there is definitely shrinkage at the federal level.”
The median income for Ulster County has been increased to $66,700 for a family of four, up from $63,500 last year, according to O”™Connor. To qualify for federal and state subsidies for housing, people generally can earn no more than 80 percent of the median income. That comes to $42,700 for two people.
In Ulster County, 70 percent of residents own homes, while the remainder rent. O”™Connor said it has been difficult for many renters to make the transition to home ownership because of a doubling of housing prices, which was not matched by a doubling of incomes. He said homeowners have an average net worth of over $100,000, compared to just $4,000 for renters. “Home ownership is a very powerful wealth builder for families,”
