A lack of affordable housing problem plagues Warren County and many communities around the nation, and a newly created Warren County task force met for the first time this week to chart a path to address it.
The meeting was viewed by attendees as a strong step toward coordinating government response to the housing crunch.
Creation of the task force was a recommendation from Warren County’s recently developed housing strategy, which along with a companion study can be found online here. (This website also includes a newly developed page to track the development of local housing projects.)
Eighteen individuals who represented 13 different organizations met April 3 at Warren County Municipal Center to establish priorities, discuss available housing programs and identify funding opportunities to improve the availability of affordable housing.
“Housing is one of the key proponents to county prosperity. No one of us can solve the housing problem alone,” explained Warren County Planner Ethan Gaddy, who led the meeting.
Participants learned that additional funding is being dedicated to the issue by economic organizations, particularly to help developers with “soft costs” such as engineering and permitting to get housing development projects moving. Ways to streamline the regulatory process for approval of housing projects was discussed as well.
Represented at the meeting were North Country Rural Development Coalition, Warren County Economic Development Corp., Warren-Washington Industrial Development Agency, Glens Falls Housing Authority, and municipal officials from Warren County, Queensbury, Glens Falls, Bolton and Lake George. Representatives of the Lake Champlain Lake George Regional Planning Board, Town of Horicon and Rebuilding Together of Saratoga County round out the task force.
The Task Force plans to meet quarterly, and the next meeting date is to be determined. You can learn more about Warren County’s actions to address the housing crunch here.