SCHROON LAKE — Workforce housing in the North Country is getting a big boost from a $3.5 million state grant announced Thursday.
The big reveal of an Accelerate Workforce Housing and State Revolving Loan Fund grant came at the end of a Workforce Housing Forum sponsored by the Adirondack Community Foundation at the Lodge at Schroon Lake.
More than 100 people attended the seminar from local governments, developers, businesses and housing groups.
Empire State Development Regional Director Steve Hunt, whose agency awarded the grant, said Gov. Kathy Hochul had just made the announcement in Albany.
“This is the result of months of strategic cooperation,” he said from the podium. “It will increase the supply of owner-occupied housing in the region. Our workers, like medical providers and teachers, are being priced out of the communities they serve.”
He said they’ll first be guiding 15 communities to pro-housing certification.
“We’re inviting small towns. It’s at least 50 units (total) to the finish line and a revolving loan fund.”
ACF Director of Community Impact Kim Trombly said she was excited by the grant.
“We pulled $3.5 million through the needle,” she said. “This will make it possible for developers to break ground.”
Development Authority of the North Country Executive Director Michelle Capone said her group will administer the capital loan program created by the grant.
“It is open to for-profit businesses and any community with less than 10,000 population in the Blue Line,” she said. “They must be a certified pro-housing community. We’ll be ready to start accepting applications.”
Short-term rental properties are not eligible, she said.
James McKenna, retired CEO and president of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism in Lake Placid, has long been an advocate of affordable workforce housing in the Adirondacks.
“Many groups working together did this,” he said. “If we show success with this, we can build on it. This will serve our region and the (Adirondack) Park for many years to come.
“The momentum I felt here today is pretty remarkable. The Adirondack Foundation helped move the bar.”