Community efforts fuel affordable housing successes in the Adirondacks

Essex County Land Bank completes first project transforming blighted house in Jay

By Tim Rowland

Four years after local Adirondack governments and nonprofits made affordable housing a priority, the results are visible projects that will soon make new homeowners of those who otherwise would have stood no chance in the current market.

Most recently, the Essex County Land Bank announced completion of its first project, a rehabilitation of a blighted house that it will sell to an income-restricted family. “We are incredibly excited to announce the completion of our first rehabilitation project,” Land Bank Executive Director Nicole Justice Green said in a statement announcing that applications for ownership are now open. “This is not just a home; it’s a symbol of what can be achieved when our community comes together.”

Seven miles to the south in Keene, four cape-style modular homes have been dropped into place in recent weeks at the Both Meadow Trail development, and progress was also apparent in Tupper Lake where the Northern Forest Center demolished an old hotel to make way for affordable apartments.

In Saranac Lake, construction continues on The Lofts, a 63-unit apartment building. Plus, the builders of the MacKenzie Overlook apartment complex in Lake Placid are looking at a similar development in Ticonderoga.

“It does feel very good; a lot of diverse interests have come together,” said Megan Murphy, director of Adirondack Roots, a housing assistance organization based in Essex County. It  has administered Both Meadow, whose homes resemble the ground-breaking Fawn Valley in Lake Placid.

The successes, modest as they might be in comparison with the tremendous need, are still encouraging, advocates say, because they reflect the growing acknowledgment of the problem at both state and local levels, and present a model for building an increasing number of these homes in the future.

Key has been the teamwork of local government, housing agencies and nonprofits, buoyed by state funding to push the projects over the finish line. While it’s true that the projects would have been impossible with no government or philanthropic help, the solace is that five years ago they never would have happened at all.

“We’re developing some solid formulas for success that we didn’t have before,” Hughes said.

The Keene project shows how the affordable housing environment has shifted. The land was sold at a discount to the predecessor of Adirondack Roots by former Keene Supervisor Tom Both and his wife Alaina in the 2000s with affordable housing in mind.

Nothing happened for 20 years until the urgency of COVID-19-related housing shortages, new revenue streams and the development of an adjoining child care center got the ball rolling.

Land bank efforts steamroll

Events also led to the creation of the  land bank, designed to pluck blighted but salvageable houses from Essex County’s foreclosure rolls, fix them and sell them at a discount. This was a modification to the traditional process of auctioning properties that had reverted to the county for nonpayment of taxes.

But this private-sector method was rife with bottom feeders and scallywags and people desperate for housing, but without the money to invest in run-down homes. Inevitably, many would reappear on the auction lists a few years later.

The first land bank project was funded with pandemic relief funds but was not without speed bumps including a dearth of contractors and an out-of-the-blue decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that complicated the foreclosure process.

Still, the land bank is on a roll. Supervisors would have been happy with one or two projects a year, but instead the land bank has six homes and two pieces of land under its control with the potential for 19 to 21 homes, Justice Green said.

While surveys have shown the public favors rehabilitation of zombie properties, the cost is not cheap. Justice Green said the Upper Jay project cost $300,000 for a home the land bank will sell to an income-restricted family for $150,000. 

From a public-funding standpoint, however, this is a good time to be in the land-bank business.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $25 billion affordable housing proposal went down to a loud defeat in 2022. But  significant but less-publicized pools of funding have survived state budget wars, including millions of dollars for land banks.

Other important but under-the-radar initiatives have helped too, including one that pays to remove blighted properties that have become eyesores and pathways for “pro-housing communities” that increase funding eligibility.

What’s also new is an understanding on the part of the state that urban solutions can’t fix rural problems. “New York State has really come up with some creative initiatives that address different needs in different parts of the state,” Murphy said. “Many other states do not have these programs.”

Local advocates pounced on these initiatives, understanding there are no future guarantees. “We don’t know how long that funding will be available,” Justice Green said.

SEE INSIDE THE HOUSE: Get a look at what the house in Jay looked like before being rehabbed.

The Essex County Land bank has been awarded  $1.85 million by the state’s land bank program, which it will add to funding from two pilot initiatives, the Adirondack Foundation’s and proceeds from the sale of the Upper Jay home to create a $2.7 million pool for projects in Lewis, Ticonderoga, North Elba, Bloomingdale and Newcomb.

The projects will be a mix of rehabilitations and new construction, as the land bank decides which houses can be saved and which are too far gone. The Upper Jay house, for one, was still cheaper to rehabilitate than it would have been to tear down and build new.

Randy DeZalia, a construction worker for Stevens Construction, which did the work, said some homes have fatal flaws such as  water damage or an unsound foundation.

But the Upper Jay house was salvageable. “The walls were still plumb and the floors were still level,” he said.

It will be sold with permanent deed restrictions to ensure the long-term affordability of the home. To apply, potential buyers must provide a mortgage pre-approval letter to be added to the waitlist. The home will be listed with 21st Century Adirondacks, and those interested can inquire with their office for appointments starting in the next two weeks: https://adirondacks.c21.com/