KINGSTON – Affordable housing has been a priority since Jen Metzger became the Ulster County executive earlier this year.
So now Metzger has signed a law that makes affordable housing a public purpose and thus created the foundation for the county to develop, manage and provide for this type of housing.
The county executive made a presentation during a special meeting with the county legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee Thursday, and proposed creating a housing action fund, $15 million for initial funding from the county’s surplus fund balance, to help support new affordable housing with units that will only use renewable energy.
“I am seeing every single day as county executive the crisis that were are in, hundreds of people that our department of social services is trying to find emergency housing for. What’s scary is that are no permanent long-term solutions. We are out of time. We just can’t leave it to the market – because the market isn’t serving the need,” she said.
During the special session, Metzger and members of the county’s planning department were questioned by members of the committee.
Abe Uchitelle, the committee chairman, expects the committee to discuss it further before forwarding a vote to the full legislature, possibly as early as next month, to approve of the $15 million being released from the surplus fund balance to pay for Metzger’s proposal.
“We’re going to be reviewing a resolution by the county’s executive team for consideration in June, that will be going before the same committee in two weeks, and I expect it will have robust scrutiny, and I hope we can fill in any missing gaps,” he said. “But it seems like a very well thought out proposal from the county executive, and I urge my colleagues to consider it very, very seriously.”
The county is in a strong fiscal position with a significant surplus, and it’s coping with a housing market in the county with little inventory and many homes listed costing more than $500,000 while rents have increased about 40 percent over the last 10 years.
“We can take a piece of that and really invest in what our communities need,” she said, “now that is housing that people can afford.”
