The Housing Trust Petition for Dutchess County

Do you think that Dutchess County should create a housing trust fund similar to the one being created in Westchester County?

As the facts below attest, there is still quite a housing crisis here in our county, and the recent editorial from the New York Times endorsing Westchester County's move to create an affordable-housing land trust and other articles below make it clear it's an eminently viable option there-- as well as here.

If you agree, sign on to this petition, pass it along to all you know, and contact our County Legislature at [email protected]

Joel Tyner
County Legislator
Clinton/Rhinebeck
324 Browns Pond Road
Staatsburg, NY 12580
[email protected]
RealMajorityProject.blogspot.com
(845) 876-2488

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"A Housing Land Trust"
[New York Times editorial April 1st]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/opinion/WEHousing.html?ref=nyregionopinions

Residents of Westchester can always mark the arrival of spring by the emergence of the annual crop of initiatives in County Executive Andrew Spanos State of the County address.

They pop up like crocuses -- small and colorful and impossible to dislike. This years batch included the announcement that the countys new weapon against identity theft -- the ShredMobile, a paper shredder mounted in a truck -- had driven around and destroyed more than 12 tons of confidential household documents, and the news that the county would be giving away 5,000 energy-saving light bulbs in honor of Earth Day.

But Mr. Spanos speech on March 22 also included something bigger, bolder and more interesting than usual, a proposal that deserved closer scrutiny than it got. That was his announcement that the county would help to create an affordable-housing land trust.

Few problems in the New York region are more pressing than the cost of housing, and few seem more intractable. Westchester, with a tight housing market and high tax burden, is an acutely unaffordable place to live. Despite the best efforts of people like Mr. Spano to invite, cajole or tempt developers to build lots of units that middle-class people can afford, the market has not responded.

The county, in fact, may even be losing ground, Mr. Spano said, noting that the supply of government-subsidized Mitchell-Lama housing was steadily dwindling. These are units built under a 1950s state law that gave substantial financial breaks to developers who supplied apartments for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers. Tens of thousands of such units were built, with restrictions that they be kept affordable for decades. Now, however, landlords of these aging properties are exercising their right to opt out of the system forgoing tax breaks in return for the ability to charge market rents, or converting their units to high-priced condominiums. Thousands of residents are thus facing the looming possibility of being priced out of an ever-shrinking rental market.

Mr. Spano is looking for a way to shelter affordable units from market forces forever. Under his proposal, parcels would be bought by the county and transferred to a nonprofit organization, the Housing Land Trust, which would lease them to developers on the condition that the units built on them be priced affordably in perpetuity. This tactic has been used on a modest scale by private, nonprofit organizations and cities. But Mr. Spano says his proposal a county-run land trust made up of parcels scattered over a wide area is the first of its kind in New York State.

The challenge Mr. Spano faces, of course, is making the proposal reach critical mass, to build an entity big enough to avoid being a small-bore curiosity. That is why he also urged local communities to consider donating land to the trust. Those who do would be endorsing Mr. Spanos laudable conviction that the highest and best use of a given parcel of land may not be one more Westchester McMansion for a hedge-fund manager, but a half-dozen units, say, for regular people -- the teachers, firefighters, young couples and retirees who are increasingly unable to find a place to live in a county they would so love to call home.

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"Many Can't Afford Rent: Some Are Forced to Live in Cars, Others in Shelters"
by Larry Fisher-Hertz
[Poughkeepsie Journal 4/14/06]

A growing number of our clients are people who have jobs," said
Michael Cole, an employee of Hudson River Housing, Inc., a
Poughkeepsie-based, not-for-profit agency that runs the county's two
homeless shelters.

Anyone who wonders why the working poor are having a hard time paying the rent need only do the math. Those holding down minimum-wage jobs earn about $1,100 a month - or about $13,200 a year. And according to a 2004 survey conducted by the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development:

* The average rent for a studio apartment in Dutchess County is $620
per month; for a one-bedroom apartment, it's $882, and for a
two-bedroom apartment, $1,054.

* The income required for families in Dutchess to rent apartments -
assuming they spend 30 percent of their wages for rent - is $27,880
for studio apartments, $35,280 for one-bedroom units and $42,160 for
two-bedroom units.

* Waiting lists for subsidized housing, such as the federal Section 8
program, were not calculated because they were so long, most agencies were no longer accepting applications.

* The vacancy rate for apartments in Dutchess was 2.8 percent. A
"healthy" rate that allows for reasonable profits for landlords and
reasonable availability for tenants, is estimated at 5 percent.

* Agencies that provide services to the homeless - including Hudson
River Housing, Inc. and Grace Smith House, a shelter for victims of
domestic violence - served a total of 3,489 individuals for at least
one night in 2004. This represents an increase of 174 percent over
2002. Hudson River Housing officials said about 18 percent of the
homeless clients they served during the first three months of 2006
were employed.

Officials at the county planning department said housing costs did
not change significantly in 2005, and they are remaining relatively
steady through the first few months of 2006. But those who have been
studying the problem for the last several years said they have no
reason to believe the situation will get better before it gets worse.

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Jeffrey Schneider's report on housing in Dutchess County [11/19/06]
http://alfred.vassar.edu:8480/projects/community-facts/homelessness/

FACT: Over the past 6 years, the vacancy rate for apartments in Dutchess County has remained under 3\%. A rate below 5\% benefits landlords and makes many apartments unaffordable for low-income families.
SOURCE: 3rd Status Report of Children, Youth, and Families in Dutchess County, 2006, p.9. www.cscdutchess.org/pdfs/06StatusReport.pdf

FACT: In 2005 there were no vacancies in any of the subsidized housing units in Dutchess County. The waiting list at each of these complexes ranged from 6 months and 5 years.
SOURCE: Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development. October 2005. Table 21: Subsidized Housing. p. 20

FACT: Using guidelines from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), almost 30\% of all households in Dutchess County earn less than the $35,000 needed to rent a one-bedroom apartment.
SOURCE: 3rd Status Report of Children, Youth, and Families in Dutchess County, 2006, p.13. www.cscdutchess.org/pdfs/06StatusReport.pdf

FACT: 78.9\% of working poor families in New York spend more than 1/3 of their income on housing alone.
SOURCE: Fischer, J., Colton, T., Hilliard, T., and Schimke, K. More hard times for New York's working families. Center for an Urban Future. March, 2006. p.2

FACT: 70\% of Dutchess County community leaders rated the amount of affordable housing available as fair or poor in 2002.
SOURCE: Many Voices, One Valley. Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. October 2002. p.6

FACT: In 2002, 49\% of residents felt that not enough resources were being used to increase the amount of affordable housing in Dutchess County.
SOURCE: Many Voices, One Valley. Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. October 2002. p.8

FACT: The average price of a single family home in Poughkeepsie increased by 31.9\% between 1994 and 2000.
SOURCE: Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development. Smart Growth Housing Task Force Report. December 2001. p.15

FACT: In 2001, 21\% of Dutchess County households could not afford the average rent of a one-bedroom apartment.
SOURCE: Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development. Smart Growth Housing Task Force Report. December 2001. p.24

FACT: According to Mel Garrett, Executive Director of the Living Room, which offers services to the homeless in Dutchess County, "We are probably in the worst shortage of available space for very, very low-income people I've ever seen. ... [For] many clients who have had housing, the rents were raised to the point where those individuals on the fixed income could not afford the housing and were therefore evicted."
SOURCE: Larry Fisher-Hertz. "Housing scarce for needy." Poughkeepsie Journal. May 25, 2005. p. A1.

FACT: The Living Room is a Mental Health Association program located at the Family Partrnership Center. It provides homeless individuals a mailing address, counselling and referral services for help with addiction or mental illness, and facilities to shower, make local calls, and research a job.
SOURCE: Mental Health Association of Dutchess County. http://www.mhadc.com

FACT: According to a census taken in 2004, there were nearly 240 chronically homeless individuals living in Dutchess County. The federal government defines the chronically homeless as individuals who have gone more than 365 consecutive days without a permanent address or who have not had a permanent residence in three of the past four years.
SOURCE: Larry Fisher-Hertz. "Housing scarce for needy." Poughkeepsie Journal. May 25, 2005. p. A1.

FACT: In 2004, 177 children in Dutchess County spent at least one night in the River Haven Homeless Shelter.
SOURCE: 3rd Status Report of Children, Youth, and Families in Dutchess County, 2006, p.12. www.cscdutchess.org/pdfs/06StatusReport.pdf

FACT: In 2004, Dutchess County housing shelters served 3,489 people -- an increase of 174\% from 2002.
SOURCE: 3rd Status Report of Children, Youth, and Families in Dutchess County, 2006, p.12. www.cscdutchess.org/pdfs/06StatusReport.pdf

FACT: More than 1/2 of chronically homeless people living in Dutchess County in 2004 had a serious mental illness.
SOURCE: Larry Fisher-Hertz. "Housing scarce for needy." Poughkeepsie Journal. May 25, 2005. p. A1.

FACT: More than 2/3 of chronically homeless people living in Dutchess County in 2004 had a substance abuse problem.
SOURCE: Larry Fisher-Hertz. "Housing scarce for needy." Poughkeepsie Journal. May 25, 2005. p. A1.

FACT: Almost 1/3 of Dutchess County's chronically homeless population in 2004 were victims of domestic violence.
SOURCE: Larry Fisher-Hertz. "Housing scarce for needy." Poughkeepsie Journal. May 25, 2005. p. A1.

FACT: Approximately 10\% of Dutchess County's chronically homeless population in 2004 were veterans of the armed services.
SOURCE: Larry Fisher-Hertz. "Housing scarce for needy." Poughkeepsie Journal. May 25, 2005. p. A1.

FACT: More than 1/5 of Dutchess County's homeless population in 2004 were under the age of 18.
SOURCE: Larry Fisher-Hertz. "Housing scarce for needy." Poughkeepsie Journal. May 25, 2005. p. A1.

FACT: According to Dr. Kenneth Glatt, the Dutchess County Commissioner of Mental Hygiene, "The new institutions for the mentally ill are our jails and prisons. The largest facility in the United States which houses the seriously mentally ill is the Los Angeles County Jail. The second largest is Rikers Island in New York City."
SOURCE: Larry Fisher-Hertz. "Housing scarce for needy." Poughkeepsie Journal. May 25, 2005. p. A1.

FACT: The Living Room, which offers services to the homeless in Dutchess County, has seen an increase in the number of working people and those on fixed income (Social Security and welfare) using its services.
SOURCE: Larry Fisher-Hertz. "Housing scarce for needy." Poughkeepsie Journal. May 25, 2005. p. A1.

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"Housing Agency to be Proposed in Westchester's State of the County Speech Tonight"
by Liz Anderson [Journal News 3/22/07]
http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070322/NEWS02/703220414

Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano tonight will propose creating a new community agency to ensure that affordable-housing projects the county helps build keep their income limits forever.

Spano will deliver his 10th State of the County speech to legislators, county officials and assembled guests at 7 tonight at the county's Michaelian Office Building in White Plains.

As always, the speech gives the county executive, now in his third term, a chance to tout his administration's accomplishments over the past year and set out his agenda for the coming one.

Susan Tolchin, Spano's chief adviser, said the proposed Housing Land Trust is one of the larger initiatives Spano will detail.

In the past, the county has assisted in developing affordable housing by purchasing land and conveying it to a developer or community agency. The new property owner, in turn, agrees to keep the units "affordable" for a set period of time.

In the early 1990s, that was as little as a decade - a period that coincided with the length of the county bonds used to buy the land, Deputy Planning Commissioner Norma Drummond said.

That time period often has run its course, so the limits on 240 housing units no longer are in place, meaning they could be resold or rented at market rate. An additional 54 units will lose their income caps by the end of the year.

More recently, the county has expanded the required "affordability" commitment to 20, 30 and 40 years. But establishing a nonprofit will create a community agency that, going forward, can retain ownership of the land and strike agreements to develop and manage the properties that can be renewed indefinitely, Tolchin said.

Under the state constitution, the county is forbidden from creating its own housing authority.

The county would be the first in New York to try this approach, Tolchin said.

Families who make 80 percent or less of the county's median income can qualify in Westchester for "affordable" units, and they are required to pay no more than 30 percent of that income toward their housing costs, whether that be a mortgage or rent payments including utilities. For a family of four, that would be an income of $77,200 and a rent or mortgage payment of no more than $1,930 a month, Drummond said.

Many rental projects are restricted further, to those making 60 percent of the median income. For that same family of four, that would be a maximum income of $57,900 and a maximum monthly rent or mortgage payment of $1,448, she said.

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March 22nd State of the County Address from Westchester County Executive Andy Spano
http://www.westchestergov.com/soc.htm
[excerpt]

I speak tonight about the State of our County, and the services and programs we initiate and support to make Westchester the place where everyone wants to live. Trouble is, there is not an affordable home for every family who needs one.

I am especially concerned that affordable housing that was created 40 years ago under State and Federal programs are now reverting to market rate increases. This will affectover 4,000 Mitchell-Lamaunits in 11 municipalities. While we have been successful working with landlords in Ossining and Greenburgh to keep this from happening, I fear that many of the other units will be lost to market rates.

Even some of the affordable housing units built 15 years ago are now becoming unaffordable. Almost 300, that had a 10 year affordability clause, can go to market rate by the end of this year. Within the next several years, that number could climb to 500. So even though we are building more, at best, we are either building and standing still or, at worst, we are losing the gains we have made.

Therefore I am taking ground breaking steps to create the first ever Housing Land Trust in New York State. Working with our partners from the Housing Land Trust Task Force, the Housing Action Council and the Pro-Bono Partnership, we will ensure that any new affordable housing funded by the County remains affordable forever.

The nonprofit Housing Land Trust would take ownership of any land that the County purchases on which the affordable housing would be built, and would then lease it to developers for continuous and renewable terms. In this way, the homes would be affordable permanently. But to make a significant difference, we need local municipalities to join this effort. To my elected colleagues: please, take a look at the land you own that might be suitable for housing and consider donating it to the Land Trust. If we all work together, we can achieve affordability in perpetuity.

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March 30th Journal News editorial:
[see:
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/OPINION/703300332/1151 ]

Click . . . click . . . click. That's the sound of a timer checking off the minutes until the affordable housing that was built throughout Westchester County in the 1970s can legally be turned into market-rate housing. County Executive Andrew Spano noted in his State of the County address that the buzzer is about to go off on 240 units of subsidized housing.

That means that Westchester, which has not been building enough new workforce housing, is also losing the little it already has. Faced with an affordable housing shortage that is reaching crisis proportion, what's a county to do? Think outside the government.

Westchester County has done just that with the creation of a new Housing Land Trust. The trust wouldn't be another government agency, but instead a nonprofit organization, which Spano can influence by appointing one-third of its board members. The Housing Land Trust would create a bank of land - through donations of property or money - that builders could build upon at no cost. The housing created could be for rent or for sale, and the Land Housing Trust is working on getting state permission to include condominiums in the mix.

"The idea is to work with individual municipalities so that they will identify and donate land to the land trust as well," Norma Drummond, the county's deputy commissioner of planning, told the Editorial Board. Spano announced the initiative last week.

In some cases, it might not even be land that is donated. Larchmont is considering donating the air rights over a parking lot, so that a developer could build above a parking lot. The beauty of the Land Housing Trust is that the trust would retain ownership of the land (or air rights) indefinitely, rather than for just a 30- or 40-year chunk of time. So the timer for affordability would never run out.

The Land Housing Trust is a creative idea and a good step to removing one obstacle to affordable housing - the cost of available land. Another challenge remains: persuading reluctant municipalities to embrace affordable communities. For that, more work still needs to be done.

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"Westchester Exec: Keep Affordable Housing" by Jim Fitzgerald
[Associated Press 3/22/07]
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--westchesterhousin0322mar22,0,6638911.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- County Executive Andrew Spano said Thursday that he is establishing a Housing Land Trust to assure that when affordable housing is built in Westchester, it remains affordable forever.

In a State of the County speech prepared for delivery Thursday night, Spano lamented that more than 4,000 apartments built with price limits are reverting to market rates because landlords are reaching the end of their contracts with federal, state and county agencies.

The county executive said that although Westchester is adding affordable units, the loss of so many to market rate meant "we are losing the gains we have made."

Spano, a Democrat, said any land bought by the county for affordable housing would be transferred to the Housing Land Trust, and the trust would lease it to developers for renewable terms.

"In this way, the homes would be affordable permanently," he said.

However, he said the trust would not have a significant impact unless Westchester's cities, towns and villages also donate land.

In Westchester, families can qualify for some affordable housing if they 80 percent or less of the county's median income _ no more than $77,200 a year. They are required to pay no more than 30 percent of their income to housing costs.

In a response to Spano's speech, the county Legislature's minority leader, Republican George Oros, said affordable housing is critical because "Those who grew up here are forced to make their homes elsewhere due to a lack of housing options."

He said the GOP would work with Spano on solutions but added, "Let's not forget _ the surest way to make housing affordable is to control property taxes."