Along with Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen and NYHomes President and CEO, Priscilla Almodovar, Blair Sebastian and Nancy Berkowitz also presented testimony before the Joint Fiscal Committees of the NYS Legislature on Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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NYS Rural Advocates Funding Request
NYS Rural Advocates respond to the Governor’s housing program and housing capital budget with their own Housing Program funding needs
This table of budget requests compares last years housing program funding levels to those just presented by Governor Spitzer and program funding that Advocates believe are needed to address the needs of rural NY this year.
Governors’ Budget: Capital Projects
HDF funded at $10 Million
Rural Rental Assistance at $19,604,000
Housing Trust Fund at $ 29 Million
AHC at $25 Million with $40,000/unit in high cost areas
HHAP at $30 Million
Homes for Working Families at $7 million
HOPE/RESTORE $400,000
Governor Releases Executive Budget for the State
RPC Program- The Executive Budget includes $4.597 million for Rural Preservation Companies. This would be enough to fund all RPCs at $65,000. It’s disappointing that last year’s final budget amount did not hold, but it’s no surprise, since this depended on a legislative add. So the Exective Budget kept the program whole as far as they are concerned. At least we start at a level we can add to and not restore a deep cut. Again, it’s “cash” in the budget and easy to whack.
New Capital: As anticipated, there is $400 million in NEW capital proposed along with a capital budget based on last year’s budget for the various existing programs. The new money promises $100 million from SONYMA reserves for upstate, if passed by the legislature. We anticipate that this will be a negotiated process and we all need to work to see if we can make it happen. Rural
Advocates has taken a position that these funds would best be channeled Upstate through the existing programs: HTF small projects and seed money, RARP, Main Street, RESTORE and
other programs that have worked well for us. Although Administered by HFA, they will work in partnership with our other State Agencies involved with housing.
Rural Rent will return for another year. Managers of older projects will want to note the budget language. We began that conversation with the DHCR Commissioner at our annual meeting. To be continued for sure!
More updates as it unfolds-
Foreclosure Mitigation
New funding may be available for housing counseling soon. Neighborworks has been asked to administer a foreclosure mitigation program in areas of greatest need. Rural NY does not appear to be a priority area, so again, we will wait and see if these funds can be utilized in our communities.
A Housing Trust Fund?
I am posting this to bring everyone up to date on the most recent Housing Trust Fund meetings. I have run a position statement by Blair and Nancy from our annual meeting and shared it at two meetings I attended in New York City, one with Housing First hosted by Dave Munchnick and one with Priscilla Almodovar at HFA and the ESHA group.
The Housing First meeting was a presentation by the Dave, ESHA, and Shelly Nortz’s bill from the Coalition for the Homeless. There was no time for discussion. I had hoped there would be some way to unite around a single effort but there is clearly many differences among the NYC folks. There was also some discussion about the possibility of Liz Kruger submitting an HTF bill but people knew very little about what might be in it or if this will happen.
The meeting with Priscilla was more discussional and she made some things pretty clear about the HTF which she is calling the Housing Investment Fund. Though HFA is looking at the use of reserves for funding housing programs the budget office is clear that the HFA bill language must be changed to even allow for the use of reserves for this purpose. The Bond community is also being asked to determine if the use of reserves will lower the bond status of NY State bonds.They may allow, but restrict the amount that can be used for this. Secondly they are concerned that selling a HTF and the subsequent discussion of dedicated revenue may just be too much this year politically. I think she is saying that we will see the proposal for housing funds through the change in HFA reserve regulatory language but not an HTF. So its still back to the legislature for this one. She also indicated that the HFA has about 61 Million in backed up projects from the withheld 50 m that the legislature didn’t fund this year. It sounds like any funding from the use of reserves may go to fulfill this commitment first. (just a guess on my part).
There is also potential that the legislature may want to use some of the HFA funds to support the DHCR request for more funding to the existing housing programs. Priscilla dwelled on the current housing programs as needing funding. Another indicator that we may get some money but through the same old vehicles. The group also asked about the limitations on private developers participation. She got pretty testy about this. There seems to be sound support for the private developer community.
We then discussed the needs survey that the Division is doing and the report that they are working on to identify all the funding that goes into housing including SSI payments DSS housing funds, all types of supportive housing etc. (Not clear what this is for: maybe a reason to not put money into certain areas?? )I have to say I left all this feeling like we need to wait on this thing. There is no one bill that meets all our needs and deserves our support. It seems that this will all play out through the legislature anyway and we ought to wait and see how the session goes. If this moves anywhere this year we are probably going to be more successful pushing our agenda through the housing committees. Take Care all and have a great holiday!! Charlie Kalthoff
Meetings Scheduled for RPC Review
Task force meetings for RPC review are scheduled for July 13, and August 9 at the State Office Building, in Utica at 10am. Agenda for July Task Force Meeting Full participation is welcomed at Regional Open Forums where work of the task force will be presented for input. Continue reading
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Predatory Lending
We’ve been hearing a lot about foreclosures in the news. Is this a big issue in your community? Are foreclosures up because of predatory lending practices or are there other reasons? Are we seeing more foreclosures in affordable housing? If it is an issue for low and moderate income persons, what actions should we be taking? If there was a loan pool made available, how could it best be used?
Rural Community Development Corporations Supported
The Rural Preservation Program as well as its urban counter part, the Neighborhood Preservation Program, were recognized in the final State Budget as an important delivery mechanism for affordable housing. Legislative leadership on affordable housing stated it was their number one priority to see this program get an increase this year. The Governor’s budget did not cut the program, but did ask that a plan be created to review the preservation programs.
NEW YORK STATE RURAL ADVOCATES 