ALBANY COUNTY — In the midst of a nationwide housing shortage, Albany County today announced two new initiatives — one to help first-time homebuyers navigate their purchase and the other to provide incentives to county residents building accessory dwelling units.

“We have to knock them barriers down,” Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said at a Monday press conference, summarizing the goal of the First-Time Homebuyer Navigator program.

A request for proposals for a navigator, which could be either a business or an individual, will be open for submissions from March 27 to April 11. The county plans to spend up to $240,000 over three years for the program.

McCoy noted how home sales have dropped since the pandemic and also said “huge real-estate companies” are “buying single homes and basically charging you so much rent, you’re never going to be able to buy your own home.”

He also said that, because of the pandemic, many people fell behind in their mortgage payments and “a ton of homes” — he thought perhaps 400 — will “hit the market” through the Albany County Land Bank.

“Unfortunately,” said McCoy, “there’s going to be opportunities there because people … couldn’t afford to stay in their homes.”

McCoy also said that “the average person that buys a house needs to make about $118,000” while “the normal range is $77,000.” Young people, he said, also often have college loans to repay and first-car payments or car insurance costs that are “through the roof.”

“It’s scary for new homeowners,” McCoy said and the new program will help them “navigate the waters.”

Banks, he said, often do not steer potential homebuyers to government programs that could be beneficial.

The navigator program, which will focus on low- and moderate-income homebuyers, will counsel them on securing State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans as well as 203k rehab loans to purchase and renovate vacant homes in need of repair.

Tax breaks for ADUs

The two leaders of the county legislature — Chairwoman Joanne Cunningham and Deputy Chairwoman Wanda Willingham — were both enthusiastic about tax incentives for residents wanting to construct accessory dwelling units but came at it from different perspectives.

The partial exemption, which is to be proposed as a county law this spring, would be for residents building independent living facilities for one or more people — either as part of a house or in the yard — on the same lot as a single-family or multi-family dwelling. 

The increased value of the property because of the ADU could range from $3,000 to $200,000; that increased value would be fully exempt from taxes for five years and then partially exempt for the next five years in decreasing percentages.

The law, if it is passed, is to go into effect at the start of 2026 and the ADUs could not be used for short-term rentals.

Rather, the program is to allow for places for elderly family members or young people starting out to have a place to live.

Cunningham, who lives in suburban Bethlehem, said that she and her sister had worked to build an addition to her sister’s home for their elderly father whose health was failing. Unfortunately, their father died before he could use it.

“It’s a great option for older people who want to be with their families,” said Cunningham, “and a great option for them to have kind of a segregated space.”

She added, “You’re also freeing up housing for other folks that need it in Albany County, which is also smart. We have a housing shortage here.”

Wanda Willingham, who has represented Arbor Hill for a quarter of a century, cited a slew of studies from around the nation that showed myriad benefits from stable housing.

One study, she said,  showed “stable housing relieves toxic stress, which can corrode a person’s ability to process information, even lead to medical depression.” Another, she said, showed it reduced recidivism rates. She said of prisoners re-entering society, “The most difficult thing for them is to find housing.”

Willingham cited another study showing stable housing decreased absenteeism in school and raised math and reading scores, leading to increased earning as adults.

The county’s new initiatives, Willingham said, will address “inequities in housing opportunities that face people of color in Albany County.”

Federal maps in the 1930s, Willingham said, “redlined housing markets and said they were too risky for investment … Generations of people were disconnected, disenfranchised, and deprived of family wealth by buying homes.”

The new ADU legislation, Willingham said, would “generate more available housing inventory by rewarding property owners for investing in themselves and building accessory dwelling units for friends, family, or even new tenants.”

Willingham also said that the navigator program, helping people buy homes, is “going to be fighting blight in neighborhoods.”

She spoke of the need “to keep our young people here” and said that “investment in them will also pan out in the future so that they can continue the things that we are doing today.”

McCoy, Cunningham, and Willingham also spoke enthusiastically about the county’s purchase of the former Saint Rose College campus as increasing housing prospects.

The century-old college, facing financial hardship, closed last summer. At the end of last year, the Pine Hills Land Authority, backed by Albany County, won the bid to buy the 48-acre campus for $35 million.

Earlier this month, McCoy said that key county services and departments are moving from downtown to the uptown campus.

McCoy spoke on March 24 of using part of the campus as housing for seniors “for people that normally couldn’t afford something like this.” He said they would be able to “not worry about their retirement and have a beautiful place to walk around.”

This would apply to “even people out in the suburbs,” McCoy said, because it is a county, not a city, project.

Cunningham said, as she has recently been door-knocking in suburban Bethlehem, she has heard a lot of interest in senior housing at the old Saint Rose campus.

“We haven’t even put it all out there yet,” McCoy concluded. “Stay tuned.”