VOORHEESVILLE — The Albany County Rural Housing Alliance, headquartered in Voorheesville, has received $540,000 in grant money as part of the state’s $92.2 million dollar initiative for affordable housing across New York.

ACRHA received $500,000 this year — $100,000 more than last year — toward the HOME program, which pays for home repairs for very low-income people.
"We can never meet the need," said executive director Judy Eisgruber this week. The waiting list is up to 125 people, and, with this grant, the housing alliance will be able to serve 45 households, she said.

Sixty percent of those 45 houses are located in New Scotland, Guilderland, or the Hilltowns, Eisgruber said.

The money will be split among the residences rather than used for a few big expensive projects.
"There is more of a need than ever before," Eisgruber told The Enterprise. With the increased cost of health care, prescription drugs, and fuel, elderly residents are having to decide whether to eat well or keep warm, Eisgruber said.

Forty-thousand dollars of the $540,000 is allocated to the RESTORE program, which is used as an emergency fund for desperately-needed repairs to homes owned by seniors 62 years of age or older.

One person was housebound for a year, before the RESTORE program built a handicap ramp for the elderly disabled woman, Eisgruber said.

With the elderly remaining in their homes for longer and staying later into their lives, the alliance makes those old homes handicap accessible by widening the doors, putting in ramps, and redoing the bathrooms, she said.

The RESTORE program in the past has also paid for hot-water heaters, fixed leaky roofs, and replaced irreparable furnaces.
"One woman was warming hot water for three years with a Mr. Coffee Maker before she found out about us," Eisgruber said.

Another recent project was replacing the floor of a trailer, which had rotted out to the point where the trailer’s elderly resident was jumping over holes in the floor, Eisgruber said.

Many of the elderly are hidden in the community in pockets of poverty, Eisgruber said. Projects are prioritized based on health and safety, she said.

A lot of the seniors ACRHA is serving, Eisgruber said, have a yearly income less than $9,000, which is 15 percent of the median income for Albany County residents of about $63,500.

The grant money allocated to the HOME program which isn’t age specific, so families and seniors are both eligible to receive aid.

ACRHA is helping families of four whose income is $31,750, half of the median income for the county, Eisgruber said.

One of the most common projects needed on family homes is roof repairs, because water is literally leaking in by the buckets, she said.

First-time homebuyers can also apply through ACRHA to receive a $25,000 grant for the acquisition and rehabilitation of a home. Fifty-one percent of the money must be spent on rehabilitation but the rest can go toward the down payment and closing costs, Eisgruber said.

Anyone interested in applying for aid through ACRHA can visit its website at www.ACRHA.org, Eisgruber said.