Ooh, a storm is threatening
My very life today.
If I don’t get some shelter
Ooh yeah, I’m gonna fade away.
— Rolling Stones, 1969
There’s no major area in America’s ever-increasingly unequal society where the gap between the haves and the have-nots is greater than housing. If shelter is indeed a human right, the United States seems to have relegated a substantial part of its population to sub-human status. How can our nation, state, region, county and municipalities efficiently provide a greater supply of affordable housing to those who need it most? How can a wealthy society such as ours provide access to affordable-housing options?
On the federal level, where it seems that every politician has a housing agenda, nothing gets done. There’s a partisan logjam.
At a press conference outside the former Quality Inn on Route 28 on the morning of August 13, local congressmember Pat Ryan announced his introduction of a package of four bills that he conceded presently have no chance of becoming law. Those bills to increase the supply of affordable housing, which he described as “pretty wonky stuff,” would expand income eligibility, decrease federal public-housing charges, cut regulatory hurdles, and reduce the costs of federal-sponsored mortgages.
Standing in front of the entrance to the building, a long row of elected politicians at various levels and RUPCO senior managers faced the microphones and cameras. The camaraderie was palpable. It was the “team spirit” of these “true partners,” each contributing what they could, the folks on the long row agreed, that would corral the increased supply of affordable housing that was needed in Ulster County.
Two days later, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris presented an economic package which promised three million new housing units in four years through a tax credit to builders of new homes, plus $25,000 toward a down payment by certain first-time homeowners.
Cutting regulations
The Republicans under Donald Trump’s leadership have a deep-seated antipathy toward public housing in particular and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in general. His administration sought double-digit decreases in the HUD budget several years in a row.
The GOP 2024 platform included a plank on housing affordability.
“To help new homebuyers, Republicans will reduce mortgage rates by slashing inflation, open limited portions of federal lands to allow for new home construction, promote homeownership through tax incentives and support for first-time buyers, and cut unnecessary regulations that raise housing costs,” reads the platform.
Wrote Reason Magazine last month, “On more concrete policies, there’s not too much daylight between both candidates. The Biden administration wants more expansive federal fair-housing regulations. The Trump administration wants looser ones.”
Other sources are more critical. “America is building too little new housing and doing far too little to ensure that existing or new housing is affordable for all,” opined a recent article in The New Republic.
For the most part, Trump has pushed back against local land-use policies that have discouraged development.
Work with local communities
Here in New York State, more than half of apartment occupants are rent-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent. The Republican perspective is peppered with scorn for squatters (“Expedite the method where a property owner may evict a squatter from residential property”) and ineligible tenants (“The truth is 30 percent of those units are going to wealthy people because nobody checks their income”) plus support for means testing (“to ensure that affordable housing units are occupied by those who need them”).
The state’s pro-housing community program rewards local governments designated as working to address New York State’s housing crisis with a certification that gives them an edge in applying for discretionary funding programs.
Beyond these incentives, however, there is a realization that access to affordable housing in the state must be expanded. Local communities have a major role to play, GOP state senate leader Rob Ortt said in March that it was important “to work with local communities on what housing strategies are best for them.”
How’re we doing in Ulster?
Rehabilitating the former Quality Inn involves a five-year $43-million project that will create 83 apartments, 70 of which will be affordable housing for the homeless.
RUPCO, which among other things manages 771 affordable apartments in the region, is up to the task of managing an even more complex project to provide a variety of on-site program services to a very challenged population.
A central figure in RUPCO is longtime CEO Kevin O’Connor. In their brief remarks at the Quality Inn site, O’Connor and county executive Jen Metzger stressed how important it was to have a partner like Ryan at the federal level.
Pat Ryan picked up on that theme, The situation required all hands on deck, he said.
The county government’s $15-million replenishable affordable housing fund was important, as was the county legislature’s support of it.
State senator Michelle Hinchey had been relentless in persuading the state legislature that the lack of affordable housing was not just a problem in New York City.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a shortage of seven million homes that are affordable and available to America’s poorest families.
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