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No construction of local affordable housing lately

Aug 15, 2023 12:46 am

Nancy Kern reports for Columbia-Greene Media that while most local politicians agree that there is an affordable housing crisis, few buildings have actually been constructed to address the problem. In Coxsackie, there is a proposal to use funds from the village’s NY Forward grants to convert buildings into 68 mixed- income, artist, and affordable apartments, and renovate another property for affordable, medium-term housing for 25 to 30 writers, and also fix-up another building for mixed-use retail with a little affordable housing on the second floor. But that is only a proposal. In Tannersville, the nonprofit Hunter Foundation says it will use its $10 million NY Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant to build workforce housing. But that is not a government group. And Kern writes, "Hudson Mayor Kamal Johnson said he has hopes of converting some properties currently underused or altogether abandoned into housing." Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed building 800,000 new housing units across the state earlier this year, but the legislature declined to pass her proposal. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.