By Tim Rowland
For two hours on Wednesday, a broad array of advocates diagnosed the ailing Adirondack housing industry, and batted about plans for one day restoring it to health.
The “Taking Stock of Housing” event at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake was organized by Adirondack Explorer, and brought together a wider-than-usual cross section of around 100 attendees: from finance to construction to government, nonprofits, philanthropists, educators, planners, economic development players, regulators and concerned citizens.
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For many, this work is personal. Nicole Justice Green, executive director of the PRIDE of Ticonderoga community advocacy group, said it’s her job to find suitable housing for the agency’s clients. Yet with five kids, she and her husband were unable to find affordable housing in Ticonderoga even though they both have masters degrees and earn good money. “We have lived this struggle,” she said.
The housing issue has been studied in depth, and to the point where the causes for the workforce housing shortage are largely understood.The subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 halted local construction and sent trades workers looking elsewhere for work; Covid drove urban populations that were deemed healthier, but were already short on housing; with an influx of visitors, lucrative short-term rentals drove locals out of the market. And of course housing prices rebounded far in excess of local salaries.
In Essex County, said Allison Gaddy, senior planner for the Lake Champlain/Lake George Regional Planning Board, typical household income falls $80,000 short of buying the typical home. An agency study also shows that in four Adirondack counties, 7,500 new housing units are needed and a total of 20,000 “housing interventions,” where living conditions are too expensive, substandard or otherwise less than ideal.
But with the terms of the challenge defined, more potential solutions are presenting themselves, a more realistic timeline for success is coming into view. So the question has shifted from “Can something be done?” to “Can something be done in time?”
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“It really scares me that the school population has dwindled to the point where we don’t know if we’ll have more than three or four kids in the classroom,” said Daniel Kiefer-Bach, community development coordinator for Living ADK in Old Forge.
Terri Morse, director of mental health and community services for Essex County added that the bottom of society does not end with workers having trouble staying current on the rent. Others, perhaps 30% of Essex County, have even deeper issues, “Please do not leave the vulnerable population out” of housing solutions, she said.
The evaporating student populations have Kiefer-Bach questioning whether he will be able to remain in the Adirondacks — even after taking leadership positions on potential solutions such as home sharing among young people and seniors, and deed covenants that prevent workforce housing from transitioning into seasonal properties.
Another compound sticking point — the sum, perhaps, of all the other individual sticking points — is that an affordable market rate home simply does not exist. “We really want to build houses that people can afford,” said Nicole Martinez, owner of Wildlight Business Solutions in Keeseville. “(Contractors) need employees, but to get employees you need housing. It’s a circular thing that makes you crazy.”
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Even projects that appeared to be on the runway had run into frustrating delays. Land banks, for example, are currently in limbo due to a Supreme Court decision that wasn’t related to land banks, but by extension, threaten their funding mechanism.
Michael Tucker, executive director of Columbia County Economic Development Agency and Wednesday’s keynote speaker, said that sounds about par for the course. “Housing is mostly frustration mixed with exhilarating moments,” he said. “We make an art of driving round pegs into square holes. But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s wrong. We have to show up and we have to stay focused.”
About this series
Adirondack Explorer is highlighting the region’s housing challenges, with a multi-part series running in our magazine and online. Award-winning Freelance Journalist Tim Rowland investigates causes of the housing shortage, housing’s effects on other aspects of Adirondack life, hacks that people use to get into a home and potential solutions being tried here and elsewhere. His reporting is based on review of real estate data, documents and extensive interviews.
Want to live in the Adirondacks? Done be so picky. Have a glance at Newton Falls, NY. Newton Falls Paper Mill Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/479666379544369 – Scroll down a few posts to see a recent 139 comment discussion about moving there and living there.
So what it doesn’t matter . If schools don’t have the need for students then close them and save the money on the taxpayers rolled and drive the pricing down. But they’re not going to want to do that because they want to take care of their own government never downsizes they only upsize. For years the government May regulations to keep the Adirondack Park forever while and all the sudden no we need to rebuild and put more housing in the park this is ridiculous. Most of the people live in the Adirondack park today are either retire or vacationers isn’t that what the state wanted was driving aren’t they getting a lot of revenue through taxation some of these text bills appear are ridiculous into the roof. So let’s close some schools if you don’t need them and some other things you don’t need up there. Enough said I’m just rattling on sick of the privileged NY spending for no reason. Just to send the money downstairs and the people up here do not have a voice at all..
Newton Falls? My Great-Grandfather was born in 2nd floor bedroom of the Newton Falls hotel in 1907. Which we owned until Prohibition. The family moved to Massena for the seaway construction and never left. We still hunt and fish ’round the Falls..and Star Lake, Fine, Benson Mines, Cooks Corners, Cranberry Lake..
But where would we work? I’m in air traffic control, my two sisters are with the power authority.
I love the Adirondacks. I lived down state and went up there for camping hiking many times. I would love to live there even with the cold. I live in Florida now. Moved here a few years ago. I love the beach and ocean but can’t take this heat. I consider myself a mountain man. I was a member of the ADK Mountain Club. Love that area. My only income is SSI. I could not afford to live there now but I have been to the mountains out west and nothing beats the ADKS
I am a seasonal resident of Saranac Lake, long retired but still active. When I am up there in the North Country I shop in your stores, hire local residents to do the chores my husband and I find too difficult, eat in your restaurants, pay our taxes and then retreat to outside the Park when the cold wind blows. I suppose I could rent my house out but who needs to be a landlord at this stage of our life ? To me, I actually look like a perfect addition to this community and I am perplexed by the not so hidden hostility. I remember when we first showed our adult children our new land in the early 2000s and one of them asked why some home owners were allergic to paint. Everything looked so run down ( it was late fall ) and neglected ( and grey and cold and leafless ) but we knew what it really was like and, were and still are, so excited to be here. So I am hopeful that we can solve the eternal problem of attracting new residents and retaining current residents while creating good jobs during a lack of good available housing and new businesses. I just don’t know at which point in this circular problem we should intervene most effectively.
I was there and this was an excellent conference with a lot of new ideas and ways to finance and build fair and equitable housing for year round “workforce” housing. I have also attended the Common Ground Alliance for over a decade. Housing has always been an issue going back to post WWII in Lake George and others. Lake Placid Club had dorms, many of the smaller owners had employee housing, but it’s now so far behind the needs that you can’t get teachers, doctors, other services because they are completely priced out. I’ve read all the comments above and have to say some are not well informed about the history, the challenges over the past 50+ years, and closing down schools is exactly the wrong approach. Luckily ADK Explorer is taking this issue head on which will get a lot of the “uber rich” in the park to realize their huge properties and great camps and mega mansions will burn to the ground if they don’t have a volunteer fire department, schools, and decent (and not corrupt, inept and/or nepotism run town government, highway department, etc.) Luckily this event showed that all the right players were in the room (some missing for variety of reasons) but we must now all be looking at rebuilding the ADK Park as a year round livable, affordable and sustainable community. After attending the Lobbying Day for the Adirondacks this year (all volunteer) I realized what will now be necessary to push government and private industry to agree to in the near future. Having lived in Aspen as a ski bum in my 20’s and seeing what many Colorado ski resorts started doing in the 80s for housing, I was happy to listen to the many options presented at the meeting. NO EMPLOYEES, NO FUTURE! Let’s all think creatively now and vote for people who aren’t the “good old boy status quo” because it still exists in the park. Thank you ADK Explorer for an excellent conference!
The article states ” An agency study also shows that in four Adirondack counties, 7,500 new housing units are needed and a total of 20,000 “housing interventions,” where living conditions are too expensive, substandard or otherwise less than ideal.”
The biggest part of the problem is the 20,000 needed “housing interventions.” Housing interventions are housing rehabs. There are NYS and Federal housing rehab grant programs. Those programs act like a jobs programs by giving about half the money to local contractors. They also train young renovators, increasing the supply of trained workers. We need jobs AND housing!
We need new construction! But if we don’t focus like mad on renovations the problem will metastasize just like cancer! The North Country needs to renovate 1,000+ units a year just to stay even. And staying even means decline. Better or worse!
I doubt Land Banks will produce 10 units a year for the entire North Country. They are for press releases, not needed housing. A cute distraction from a grievous problem.