Grant application could help develop affordable housing
City looks to help Liberty Housing "complete the funding"
The City of Saratoga Springs is hoping to “complete the funding” for the development of a Liberty Affordable Housing Inc. workforce housing project. To do so, it is expected to apply for a grant through the “Pro-Housing Supply Funds Program,” a pool of money controlled by the state’s Empire State Development funding and development arm. The city council is expected to pass a vote Tuesday July 1 allowing the city to apply.
The project on 30 acres at the corner of Jefferson Street and Crescent Avenue, near the Saratoga Casino Hotel, will bring 226 units of “workforce housing” to the city. This project has been in the works since 2022.
Generally speaking, “workforce housing” is not an actual governmental designation — unlike “Section 8 Housing” — but an indication that the property will be built to be affordable to people such as teachers, police officers and firefighters.
“They [Liberty] need some help from us to do it,” Mayor John Safford told the Dispatch on June 30.
Saratoga Springs is a dedicated Pro-Housing Community, making the city eligible for the grant that can run between $2.5 million and $10 million from a state fund with $100 million to spend, according to city documents.
“The infrastructure anticipated to be funded includes water, sewer and electrical upgrades, paving, sidewalks, bus shelter, site preparation etc. as well as design, permitting and engineering fees related to those items,” city documents say.
The mayor said he is happy with the amount of affordable housing already in the city, about 1,850 units either built or in process.
“The percentage of affordable housing that we have in the city is way above average,” he said. “We’re just doing a great job right now in terms of meeting those needs.”
Dillon Moran, the city’s commissioner of accounts, agrees with that sentiment when it comes to the neediest people.
When “affordable housing” means people at or below 40% of the region’s Area Median Income, as measured by the federal office of Housing and Urban Development, then yes, “We’re in good shape,” he wrote in a text to the Dispatch, adding later that about 1,800 of the 1,850 are part of HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, or what is commonly called “Section 8 housing,” a nod to the law that created it.
“Workforce we are not even close” to meeting the need, Moran wrote.
He said it is the families that make between 60% and 120% of the AMI who need help, adding that he is glad the Liberty project is aimed at that range. The housing will be income verified and protected at that range for 30 years.
Still, the mayor can see a need for market-rate housing: “We have to have some people who live in the city who can pay taxes.”
As of 2023, the AMI for Saratoga Springs is approximately $107,000 for a family of four. For a single person, the AMI is $75,000.
A late call to Liberty Affordable Housing, Inc., was not returned in time for this post.