Sarah Trafton is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Catskill Housing Authority Wed., Mar. 24, announced plans to rehabilitate the existing Hop-O-Nose complex and to further develop additional housing options. Built in 1956, the Hop-O-Nose apartments are located on West Main Street in the village of Catskill. The development consists of 80 units and houses more than 150 people, Executive Director Tim Mattice said. “We have come to a point in time with the agency, that we need to start having a conversation about how we preserve and improve housing for the next 40 years,” Mattice said. Catskill Housing Authority Chairman Patrick Hernandez said funding is a concern. “Right now, to operate Hop-O-Nose has been financially difficult,” he said. The board has been looking at creating a sustainability plan, updating the housing to current standards, incorporating green energy and the waterfront, Hernandez said. Part of the process will be to convert from public housing to Section 8 housing, giving the housing authority access to more funding, Mattice said. The conversion would not impact the tenants, Mattice said. “HUD is very sensitive [to] protecting the residents through this conversion process,” he said. “They will maintain the same protections, the same subsidies, determining the rent is all the same.” No budget or time line for the renovation project has been decided yet, he added. Once chosen, the developer will conduct a market study to learn where there could be opportunities for more public housing, Mattice said. “We’ll base the project on what the market study shows us and what the village plan is for housing,” he said. In the summer of 2020, the Hudson/Catskill Housing Coalition reported that the waiting list for Hop-o-Nose was 82 people, Catskill Mountain Housing’s waiting list was two years out and RUPCO had 605 applications. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.