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Pattern for Progress Hosts "Housing the Hudson Valley" Event, Defines "Affordability Gap"
Conference advances issue of affordable workforce housing
Speakers at the second annual "Housing the Hudson Valley" conference called for action on many levels in order to close the "affordability gap" between people's financial capacity and the housing supply in the nine-county region represented by Pattern for Progress, the conference's host. The event drew nearly 300 planners, housing advocates, developers, financers, not-for-profit executives, and municipal officials to Marist College in Poughkeepsie yesterday.
Keynote speaker Robert Yaro, head of Regional Plan Association, compared the Hudson Valley's crisis with the tri-state area, the rest of the U.S., and China, where he just surveyed a community which has doubled in size each year over the past 15 years to a current population of 13 million. The difference, he says, is how government deals with land use planning. Aging boomers now entering retirement, their children and grandchildren, and even the increased immigrant population are putting new pressures on the kinds of housing many Hudson Valley communities will not approve: Smaller, more densely sited units, multi-family developments, and rental units. "Most of the communities have pulled up the drawbridge" on such development, he said.
Yaro described the communities of the future, where people step out their door "not on three acres of lawn", but within walking distance of shopping and entertainment, and pointed to the Metropolitan Transportation Agency's support of "TOD", or transportation oriented development, where communities expand housing options around train stations, as good examples. He said the Hudson Valley needs to "take the 'smart growth' principles that Pattern for Progress supports down to the action level in counties and towns across the Valley…In the end, it comes down to political resolve."
The conference also featured a presentation on the New York State funding picture, and an open audience discussion with members of Pattern for Progress' Regional Housing Committee and guest panelists. Joan Pagones, Fishkill's supervisor, described her town's success with "inclusive" housing via community education. "There's a problem with the term 'affordable housing'", she said. "Everyone thinks of a tenement building in South Bronx, instead of just 'housing that everyone can enjoy'." With education comes a "heart change" that is necessary in order to make progress, she said.
Pattern for Progress is a notfor profit policy, planning, advocacy and research organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing the quality of life for Hudson Valley residents through regional solutions. Founded in 1965 by business, academic and civic leaders, and based in Newburgh, NY, Pattern serves nine counties: Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester. More information is available by calling (845) 565-4900, or by visiting Pattern for-Progress.org.
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