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Many of the protesters who spoke during the hearing criticized the budget proposal for adding two new sheriff positions and keeping the budget for the Broome County jail at more than $29 million.
“Those properties, to be honest, should really be condemned, but people have to live there because it’s the only place that they’re able to afford.”
Elmira was awarded $1 million. Binghamton was awarded $585,000.
The $7.7 million project is funded mostly from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.
The Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Service Community Land Trust plans to use it on two developments that will result in 18 affordable homes.
Most at the hearing oppose a proposed mixed income housing development.
“The proposal itself would really discourage real estate investment at a time when New York state should be creating more incentives to attract people, grow businesses, and investment opportunities not only locally but in the entire state.”
“When we have residents coming back from treatment and ending up in the same housing they left we’re not assisting them in staying in recovery,” said Rebecca Kaufman, Director of the Broome County Department of Health.
The shortage of affordable housing is a serious problem across the Southern Tier. On Thursday night in Ithaca, people from different sectors came together to discuss one aspect of the problem — workforce housing.
An affordable housing project in Oneonta just got nearly $7 million from New York state. Gary Herzig says the project fills a big need. “We have very few affordable housing units for working families,” Herzig says. “In addition, we have a list, a long list, of vacant housing units that unfortunately is getting longer every year.”
Herzig works at the community agency Opportunities for Otsego. He helped coordinate the new housing project.