Residents, organizations gather to discuss housing solutions

TUPPER LAKE | On a snowy first of November, 150 individuals who work, play and live in the Adirondack Park gathered to discuss: how can you work and play in an area where you have nowhere to live? Taking Stock of Housing, an event at The Wild Center, was the culmination of Tim Rowland's series for the Adirondack Explorer, which explored many aspects of Adirondack housing issues. The event brought together individuals and organizations working to lessen and solve these issues. After a video about Fawn Valley, an affordable housing development built by Homestead Development Corporation and speakers like F. Michael Tucker, president & CEO, of Columbia Economic Development Corporation; Allison Gaddy, Senior Planner at Lake Champlain Lake George Regional Planning Board; Tracy Ormsbee, Adirondack Explorer publisher and Lori Bellingham, Vice President for Community Impact for the Adirondack Foundation, there was a panel discussion. Adam Feldman, previously executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Northern Saratoga, Warren and Washington Counties and current owner of Feldman Consulting, led the discussion. Feldman broke the panel discussion into two sections, "Why?" and "How?" "At the end of the day, we want you to leave either learning something new, excited about something new, or meeting someone new that, you're going to take the next step with," he said. WHY? Feldman asked the audience, "On a scale of one to 10, how motivated are you to solve the housing problem/build housing units?" Most people held up 5-10s, some holding up their toes to show 15s and 20s. Each panelist shared the motivation that keeps them working for housing. The panel included Daniel Kiefer-Bach, Community Development Specialist at Living ADK; Dan Kelleher, economic advisor at the Adirondack Park Agency; Nicole Justice Green, executive director of PRIDE of Ticonderoga and Essex County Land Bank; Megan Murphy, executive director of Adirondack Roots; Nicole Martinez, principal of Wildlight Business Solutions; Lori Bellingham, vice president for community impact for the Adirondack Foundation; and Allison Gaddy, senior planner at Lake Champlain Lake George Regional Planning Board. The audience had an opportunity to share their "whys." Kevin Bean, a Johnsburg resident said in his town of 2,200 there is next to no housing and the housing there is, isn't affordable for the jobs that need to be filled in his community. "We're looking at EMS workers who don't have housing, we're looking at teachers who can't afford housing, we're looking at nurses who can't afford housing," he said. "It's a frustration and for us, because I've talked to plenty of contractors and it's like which came first, the chicken or the egg? because we need employees. But to have employees you need housing, if you don't have housing, you're not going to get employees." Lewis Supervisor James Monty said he is motivated by the decline in school districts. In 2018, Elizabethtown-Lewis Central School District and Westport Central School District merged into Boquet Valley Central School District. "My school district that I graduated from had 524 kids," Monty said. "We don't have 300 kids in two school districts. We have 100 jobs in Essex County open right now. And the majority of them can't find affordable housing." He said COVID-19 drove the area's housing stock down because people moved from bigger cities to live in more rural communities. He said the stretch between Lewis and Westport had 28 homes for sale before COVID-19, after the pandemic settled, there were two on the market. "Unfortunately they took those homes and made them short-term rentals which drives our housing stocks down," Monty said. Teresa Cheetham-Palen is on the town board in Keene. When she was first elected she started talking with her colleagues about the lack of housing in their town. A fellow board member said to her, " Housing has always been a problem in Keene, it will always be a problem. If people want affordable housing they have to go to another town." "My jaw dropped," Cheetham-Palen said. "I thought you were elected to serve this community and your answer is 'go away?' How can that even be? So that was so shocking to me." She said she is motivated to bring people in to fill jobs and to keep the town vibrant. Jackie Bowen, director of conservation for the Adirondack Council shared she is in her early 30s, can only afford to rent and her twin sister, who was hired to work as a counselor for the county, had to move in with her because she couldn't find a rental of her own. Bowen said it is not only important to think about finding housing for the people who live here already but to also consider the people who will move here in the future as a part of climate migration. HOW? Next, Feldman asked the audience to raise their fingers to show on a scale of one to ten, how many tools they can provide to help solve housing issues. These numbers were lower, but the majority believe they have some modes of helping. Each panelist shared what they can do. Gaddy said the Regional Planning Board connects communities with state and federal funding, then works with those communities to implement those funds. Bellingham said the Adirondack Foundation invests in local projects. Martinez said the tools she provides are literal: hammers, saws, ladders, but also insight. "I can provide real-time pricing, building designs that get built, that don't get built and why," she said. Murphy said Adirondack Roots works with homeowners, renters and landlords, providing funding assistance and counseling to help people find and keep affordable, quality housing. Green said Pride of Ticonderoga preserves existing housing, making it not only affordable but hospitable as well. The land bank takes blighted, foreclosed homes, many of which have frequented tax foreclosure auctions, and makes them liveable so they can be sold for an affordable price. Kelleher said that from a land use economist perspective, he brings data, which can be critical to defining problems like demand exceeding supply. Kiefer-Bach said Living ADK thinks about, "What if we could not build any new housing whatsoever? How do we protect the industries in our communities?" They do this by looking for solutions that private citizens and not-for-profits could do, even if there was no buy-in from their local government. Then the audience was given a chance to speak again. Essex County Director of Community Resources Terri Morse took this opportunity to ask everyone involved in creating housing to consider vulnerable populations: those with mental health issues, those with intellectual disabilities and those with substance misuse disorders. "They make up about 30% of our population and they are renters," Morse said. "They are not looking for affordable housing in the way I hear it defined today. They are looking for low-income housing. So I beg of you to either change your language to include that population or at least when you use the term "affordable housing" that you include in your heart and your minds this population." Kendra Ormerod shared an example of how private citizens can help. She explained she wished she had some of the resources the panel discussed when she bought her first home in Bloomingdale, in 2017. When she sold that home, she was offered $15-20,000 more from a buyer who disclosed to her that they were going to use it as a seasonal home. Instead, she sold it to a young couple who would use it as their primary residence. "That was probably the max we could have swallowed not getting," she said. "If it had been more than that our virtue would not have not outlasted our pocketbook." Stephanie Sears, interim board president for a newly forming housing cooperative in Lake Placid, shared she is looking for volunteers and board members. "We are trying to build 20-40 units on about 100 acres of property," she said. "We are in the early development." The project Sears was referencing is being put together with help from the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) and the Massachusetts-based non-profit Cooperative Development Institute (CDI). The land was anonymously donated.

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Residents, organizations gather to discuss housing solutions

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