Rupco notches housing successes
The lament will always be with us: Don”™t let the rain come down ”“ my roof”™s got a hole in it and I might drown.
The Rural Ulster Preservation Co. (RUPCO), with recent successes amid a torrent of bad housing news, is putting a crimp on that refrain.
In 2010, RUPCO was the make-or-break force that helped 55 homes find first-time buyers in Ulster County. As importantly, RUPCO counseled 400 homeowners on how to forestall imminent foreclosure.
“I think we”™ve been able in these difficult economic times to bring additional housing resources to Ulster County and to the Hudson Valley region,” RUPCO Executive Director Kevin O”™Connor said. “We”™ve worked collaboratively with so many organizations. The foreclosure initiative ”“ the Hudson Valley Foreclosure Prevention Program ”“ is RUPCO, Hudson River Housing and Legal Services of the Hudson valley ”“ serving huge numbers. The partnership with Homeless Prevention Rapid Re-Housing program is a stimulus program ”“ a $1million partnership between RUPCO and Family of Woodstock ”“ that targets first foreclosures.”
O”™Connor said the downturn has been the worst in the region since the major loss of IBM jobs in the early 1990s. “We have served twice the number we expected to in half the time.” Acknowledging both the need and RUPCO”™s proficiency at dispersing funds, he said another $260,000 has been allocated by the state to bolster its efforts.
Additionally, RUPCO has:
”¢ won approval to build 53 affordable apartments in Woodstock ”“ groundbreaking this spring ”“ while continuing to manage another 274 apartments countywide to the tune of 98.03 percent occupancy and a 98.89 percent collection rate on tenant payments;
Ӣ assisted nearly 1,400 families with rent payments and provided direct financial assistance to 500 families facing a move to the curb; and
Ӣ continued to market Buttermilk Falls, its 15 townhouses in Ellenville.
The Buttermilk Falls townhouses are for sale to those earning 80 percent to 100 percent of the county”™s median income ($69,700 in 2010) and begin at $127,285 for three bedrooms. Three have been sold ”“ the third unit just closed Jan. 14 ”“ and another sale is pending with several more in the works. “Real movement,” said O”™Connor. “We”™re trying to create home ownership in Ellenville where the percent of homeowners is perhaps a little low. Another full year in sales mode and I”™m fairly optimistic we”™ll sell them out.”
RUPCO works in concert with a number of housing advocates. In addition to Family of Woodstock, with whom it runs the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing program slated to last until the markets stabilize, partners include the Resource Center for Accessible Living; and the Ulster County Housing Consortium. RUPCO also partnered with Hudson Valley Foreclosure Prevention by managing a $1 million grant fund aimed at forestalling foreclosures in Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties.
RUPCO offers five distinct avenues to address its challenges: Community Development, the Home Ownership Center, Rental Assistance, Property Management and Real Estate Development.
RUPCO”™s annual report offers a list of accomplishments in a two-year timeframe from 2008 to 2010, essentially the height of the Great Recession: 78 first-time homebuyers; 71 homes and apartment s rehabilitated under the overarching RUPCO sentiment: “If you”™re choosing between heat and food, chances are you can”™t fix a leak;” 154 homes rehabilitated through its Home Ownership Center; more than $2 million spent on rehabs; counseling or providing information orientations for some 2,200 people on various housing topics.
It all takes money, of course, and RUPCO”™s outreach for support is notable. RUPCO amassed a list of 98 individual private donors, 110 corporate donors and another 22 deeper-pocketed partners spanning alphabetically Catholic Charities to the Ulster Federal Credit Union.
RUPCO was instrumental in the redevelopment of the Kirkland Hotel in Kingston, which had its ribbon-cutting in 2008. “It is a landmark reborn,” said Dennis Doyle, the Ulster County planning director and chairman of the RUPCO board of directors, at the time. He has since moved on and Thomas Collins is the current board president. It is now called simply the Kirkland.
“It”™s a mixed-use with seven apartments ”“ all are rented ”“ one floor of  office space ”“ also rented ”“ and 2 floors of commercial space where we have a little rented and where we”™d like to see a restaurant training school,” said O”™Connor. “We”™re in touch with the Queen”™s Galley ”“ a nonprofit feeding the hungry ”“ and Family of Woodstock ”“ a services provider ”“ and the idea is maybe to open a training restaurant at the Kirkland based on an ambitious farm-to-table concept. We”™re in preliminary talks now. A CIA graduate is involved. I would call them enthusiastic preliminary discussions.”
For 2011, said O”™Connor, “We”™re looking forward to a March retreat with the board and staff ”“ to size up the economy, the housing picture, programs. We think we can start to see on the horizon the beginning of the downsizing of our homeless and job-loss programs.”