Rural Municipal Leaders Confirm Housing Affordability Continues to be a Major Issue

A joint survey conducted in October 2024 by the New York State Association of Towns and the Rural Housing Coalition of New York reaffirmed that housing affordability continues to be a major issue confronting rural communities throughout the state.

The poll of municipal leaders found that 68 percent of respondents believed that housing affordability was a major concern in their towns and villages. Affordable housing is generally defined as housing (either owner-occupied or rental) for which the occupant is paying no more than 30 percent of gross income for housing costs, including utilities.

The results of this new poll reaffirms a Marist Poll commissioned by the Rural Housing Coalition in November 2023 that showed that 73 percent of New York residents reported that the affordability of housing is a major problem in their communities. This concern was widespread across the state, with 67 percent of rural residents, 69 percent of suburban residents and 81 percent of urban residents feeling housing affordability was a major issue.

The survey of municipal leaders also found that the three major obstacles to building affordable housing are: 1) Lack of infrastructure; 2) Lack of dedicated funding at the state level for rural housing; and, 3) Lack of capacity at the local level (e.g., no government or non-profit entity dedicated to building affordable housing in their community).

“Infrastructure continues to be a major concern for municipal leaders and we look forward to working with state policymakers and other stakeholders to create an ongoing source of state funding that would support housing related infrastructure improvements,” said Chris Koetzle, NYSAT executive director.

“The Legislature has been very responsive over the last few years to the needs of rural New York and we hope that continues into the next legislative session as we seek to address the obstacles raised by this survey,” Michael J. Borges, RHC executive director, stated.

The survey of municipal leaders also uncovered that 53 percent of respondents are interested in having a housing needs assessment conducted of their county or community, which is a plan that identifies the type of housing needed, where it can be built, obstacles to building housing like zoning or lack of infrastructure, and potential steps forward.

The Rural Housing Coalition and Association of Towns call upon state policymakers to address the obstacles identified in the survey by creating an infrastructure fund that supports the development of housing in communities lacking infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, fund housing programs targeted toward smaller scale housing development like the Small Rental Development Initiative, and support communities interested in having a housing needs assessment completed.

Full survey results can be found at https://ruralhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/municipalsurvey.pdf.