WILMINGTON — The Housing Assistance Program of Essex County received $1.3 million in funding from the New York state Division of Housing and Community Renewal’s Small Rental Development Initiative, the state agency announced Friday. The grant will be used to build more affordable housing in Wilmington.

“We’re pretty excited about that,” Wilmington town Supervisor Roy Holzer said. “It’s a realistic way we can provide attainable housing.”

Six apartments in three townhouses are slated to be built with the grant money. The units, as per grant guidelines, will be rented to households at or below 80% of the area median income, or AMI. The AMI in Essex County is currently $80,100, making 80% AMI, $64,080. The town of Wilmington agreed to purchase the more than 9-acre plot of land where the apartments will be built from June and Paul Coarding last September using a $132,000 grant it received from the Northern Border Regional Commission. The money was granted to the town for the purpose of buying a property where it could install a decentralized sewer system. Holzer said last September that any remaining grant balance from the land sale could go toward the plans for a septic system.

The land, which is located on state Route 86 across from the former Wilderness Inn, backs up to the West Branch of the AuSable River. The six units built and managed by HAPEC will not take up all of the lot. Some of the lot will remain untouched due to its proximity to the AuSable River, while the rest will remain developable. Holzer said that there is a possibility of houses being built on the land. The houses would be sold, not rented, and would be available “perpetually for locals” — they will not be allowed to be used as second homes or vacation rentals.

The SRDI grant application process was “very competitive,” according to HAPEC Executive Director Megan Murphy. She said there was $7 million in grant money on offer and around a dozen applicants. Five grants were awarded on Friday, totaling $6.7 million. HAPEC was the only developer from a rural area to receive a grant; the other grants were awarded to affordable housing projects in Rochester, Syracuse and Binghamton.

Murphy said there is not a timeline for the project yet, as HAPEC just received word of the funding. The project will cost about $1.6 million, and the $1.3 million grant will cover most of it. The rest, a construction loan, will become a mortgage on the property for HAPEC.

“We’re excited about it,” Murphy said. “There’s a need for a variety of (housing) solutions.”

Aside from the forthcoming Wilmington development, HAPEC owns and manages two properties in Port Henry and one in Westport. HAPEC also helps people to obtain Section 8 housing choice vouchers, which are meant to help low-income families and elderly and disabled people to afford housing in the private market. Murphy said that, as of today, she knows of more than 25 voucher holders in Essex County alone who still have not been able to find housing due to the shortage. She hopes that projects like HAPEC’s in Wilmington and MacKenzie Overlook in Lake Placid will help to alleviate this problem.

“It’s important for communities to have good-quality long-term rentals,” she said.

–

Affordable housing crisis

–

The Tri-Lakes region has faced a shortage of affordable long-term housing for many years, a crisis exacerbated by the rise in popularity of online vacation rental platforms.

The Lake Champlain-Lake George Regional Planning Board released a 296-page report in March that focused on the housing crisis in Essex, Franklin, Clinton and Hamilton counties. It said the region has a “stagnant and declining year-round population,” that “housing production has not kept up with demand” and that “income levels are drastically misaligned with housing costs … putting quality housing options out of reach.”

In the Lake Placid area alone, a 2020 study found that with a goal of 50% of the local workforce living within the community, Lake Placid and North Elba have a need for roughly 1,534 affordable housing units.

Housing developments are in progress or complete in several municipalities across the region. MacKenzie Overlook, an affordable housing complex in Lake Placid, opened to residents this march following the 2023 FISU Winter World University Games, filling its 60 units from a pool of around 150 applicants. The building’s rent rates are scaled to income. For example, according to the development’s website, a one-person household earning $21,480 annually pays $481 a month in rent for a one-bedroom apartment, while a one-person household earning $42,960 annually pays $853 a month in rent for a one-bedroom apartment.

Another housing development, Fawn Valley in North Elba, is setting its sights on move-in day, holding an open house as recently as July. Consisting of 22 single-family and townhouse residences that will be sold — not rented — the development is not considered “affordable housing,” as its units are not designated solely for households earning up to 80% AMI. It is, however, designated for households earning up to 200% AMI, which is about $167,400. Homestead Development Corporation, the nonprofit developer behind the project, announced in September 2022 that eight of the units would be reserved for employees of the local school district and hospitals — four units for LPCSD staff and four units for the two Adirondack Health-run hospitals in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.

A third housing development, The Peaks at Lake Placid, was slated to be built on Barn Road. Purchased for $5.3 million in 2021 by local developer Joseph Barile, the property was proposed as one of the largest housing developments to ever be built in Lake Placid, with 265 apartments for rent and 90 condominiums. The apartments would have been income-restricted. However, after four years of planning the project, Barile put the land up for sale in June, putting the project on what may be a permanent hold. Another developer who purchases all or part of the property could — with approval from the town, village and APA — build something other than what Barile got approval to build. No new buildings have been constructed on the site yet.

In Saranac Lake, the 70-unit, two-building The Lofts and The Carry project will eventually be built on 1.1 acres between Broadway and Depot Street. The project also received funding from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal last year, though it did not receive the same grant as the Wilmington project. The site was undergoing environmental cleanup activities as of July.

In Tupper Lake, the former Oval Wood Dish factory was sold in 2021 to developers who intended to turn the space into affordable housing. Ground will be broken on the project in early 2024. Additionally, the Park Street Residences, developed by the Northern Forest Center, will consist of nine long-term rental units for the local workforce in the former Plaza Hotel.

In Keene, the Both Meadow project will see four new single-family homes built by HAPEC in partnership with the town of Keene and the Keene Housing Task Force. The homes will be sold, not rented, and will be designated for households at or below 100% AMI. The Keene Housing Task Force also considered a site on Gilmore Hill Road owned by the Adirondack Land Trust for affordable housing in August 2022. Task force member and town Councilor Teresa Cheetham-Palen said that the project is “still a possibility,” though remains in early stages, as she is “trying to come up with a way to make the financing work.”