Housing is normally thought of as the place people go after engaging in business. But in truth, experts say, having sufficient housing is a key ingredient for a region successfully facilitating profitable businesses.
That seems a lesson officials in the Hudson Valley never grasped. Thus, a severe affordable housing shortage continues to exist today, fulfilling predictions made consistently over the last 20 years regarding the need to create “inclusive housing” that is affordable to first-time buyers. The lack of such housing is a key reason the region is losing its youth, being lured to jobs in places with houses they can afford to buy.
There are signs now of some progress toward meeting the demand, because affordable housing is an integral part of “smart growth” principles being extolled by planners throughout the region. The challenge, as ever, is to implement policies extolled by planners to bring about smart growth.
At the second annual Housing the Hudson Valley conference June 11, hosted by Patterns for Progress and held at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, about 300 people heard an array of ideas about ways to create sufficient “inclusive housing.” That is the term used by Joan Pagones, the town of Fishkill”™s supervisor, who described her town”™s efforts at re-labeling a venerable cliche. “There”™s a problem with the term ”˜affordable housing,”™” she said. “Everyone thinks of a tenement building in South Bronx, instead of just ”˜housing that everyone can enjoy.”™”
That perception is partly why there is a severe shortage of such housing in the Hudson Valley. Planning commissioners for Dutchess, Orange and Ulster counties presented preliminary results at the conference from the new Tri-County Housing Need Assessment, quantifying what they termed the “affordability gap” in those counties. The study estimated that in 2006, Orange had 31,272 fewer affordable homes and apartments than its residents required, while Dutchess had 24,813 too few and Ulster had  a need of 15,953 units, with the gap widening significantly in the next decade. While Westchester was outside the Tri-County assessment area, officials there acknowledge a shortfall of at least 10,000 units of affordable housing.
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The Tri-County study has not yet allocated the numbers of necessary units among the counties”™ many and varied municipalities, but officials at the conference stressed the need for plans creating inclusive housing to extend down to town planning and zoning boards.
Keynote speaker Robert D. Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, criticized the way many local governments deal with land use planning, saying they are simply ignoring reality by refusing to allow affordable housing to be created in their towns. Aging boomers now entering retirement, their children and grandchildren, and even the increased immigrant population are increasing the need, yet many Hudson Valley communities hesitate to approve developments with smaller, more densely sited units, multi-family developments and rental units ”“ the type of housing that is needed. “Most of the communities have pulled up the drawbridge” Yaro said.
Evoking smart growth principles long extolled by progressive planners Yaro described the ideal communities of the future, where people step out their door “not on three acres of lawn,” but within walking distance of shopping and entertainment. He touted the Metropolitan Transportation Authority”™s support for TOD, or transportation-oriented development, with communities working to ensure there are adequate housing options around train stations as an example of a development paradigm the Hudson Valley should adopt. “Choose smart growth,” Yaro advised. But he noted for many such decisions “Ultimately, it comes down to political resolve.”
“Local governments can get a lot of opposition from neighbors after making proposals for affordable housing,” said Deborah DeLong, director of housing for the Westchester County Planning Department. “No matter how nice it is, how much it is needed, they don”™t want it,”
Westchester has made efforts at providing affordable housing since 1991, but despite such efforts, she said, the need still exceeds the supply. The county originally determined that about 5,000 units of affordable housing was necessary. Currently, some 2,200 units are “in the pipeline,” DeLong said. Meanwhile the need for additional affordable units is now at least 10,000.
The result of this shortfall is profound, in ways that affect the bottom line of companies and the economy, and in ways that go well past business matters.
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“People are not understanding that because it is not affordable to live here, we are actually losing talent,” DeLong said. “Young people who grew up here cannot afford to live here and these are people who would be our leaders of the future. If they don”™t live here, we are losing essentially skilled labor, people who keep our economic engine running.”
The problem is not only draining vitality from Westchester, she said, but from the entire Hudson Valley. “This is the same thing that Dutchess County, Orange County and Ulster County are facing. They are realizing they are losing their young people. It”™s the 18- to 35- year-old population that is actually down,” said DeLong.
Her words were borne out by presentations made at the housing conference by area businesses. The Pawling Corporation has an average salary of $40,500 among its 300 employees, and constantly deals with housing affordability, said Susan Thompson, head of human relations. She said it”™s the main reason why only 13 percent of her work force is under 30. “We are losing our brainpower,” Thompson said.
Thompson also said the Pawling Corporation work force has 19 percent of its employees who are over 60 years old. She said that is because so many retirees find they need to go back to work in order to remain in their homes in Dutchess County, which are increasingly becoming unaffordable as taxes and utility costs rise.
Another impact on senior citizens arising from high housing costs is that the region simply loses them. “Many residents reach retirement and move out of the area,” DeLong said. “And these are the people who have spent their lifetime living and working here and have a lot to offer, many volunteer to do community work. They are leaving.”
Perhaps the best indicator of how serious the problem of affordable housing has become can be seen in the diverse list of sponsors Patterns for Progress enrolled for the housing conference, ranging from banks to unions to nonprofit environmental groups.
Sponsors included Citi, Jacobowitz & Gubitz, TD Banknorth, Westchester Medical Center, Community Preservation Corporation, Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, Key Bank, St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers, Ulster Savings Bank, Cannon Heyman & Weiss, First Sterling Financial, KOW Building Consultants, Leyland Alliance, Local 17 LECET, Mohonk Preserve, Regan Development and Rhinebeck Savings.
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