New York invests $28 million in affordable housing

New York is giving $28 million in funding awards to not-for-profit housing agencies in the state. The funds will go towards building, renovating or modifying 1,472 homes for low-income families, the disabled or the elderly. In addition to that 120 units will be made available to provide home ownership opportunities for veterans, homeless and first time home owners.

The awards were made through three programs administered by the state’s integrated Housing Agencies:

• HOME Program: will get 55 awards totaling $22 million through a federal program to acquire, renovate or construct affordable housing. The HOME program also works through the Manufactured Home Replacement Initiative (MHRI), which works to renovate and maintain the growing population of aging mobile and manufactured homes upstate. MHRI has spent $5 million so far this year on older mobile and manufactured homes.
• Residential Emergency Services to Offer Repairs to the Elderly (RESTORE): will get 27 awards totaling $2 million. Awards to this program will go toward eliminating hazardous conditions in homes owned by elderly people without the ability to manage the repairs themselves. RESTORE expects to make repairs to 436 homes.
• Access to Home Program: will get 12 awards totaling $4 million. Awards to this program will give financial assistance to property owners to make accessibility modifications to the homes of elderly people unable to manage this process themselves. Access to Home expects to modify 249 units statewide with the funding.

New York recently integrated all of its housing agencies which allows for a fully coordinated funding decision making process. These awards are one of the results of that integration. The funding is also likely to increase the number of manufactured homes in the state. Currently, more than 500,000 New Yorkers live in manufactured homes, the state uses manufactured homes as one of its primary affordable housing options.

“These awards will help leverage additional investments of more than $36 million from public and private sources that will create jobs and increase our stock of affordable housing,” Governor Paterson said.