GUILDERLAND — The town is helping 102 families with government-subsidized housing but has a list of 333 applicants waiting for a place in the program.

Ninety-eight percent of those being served in the Guilderland program are either elderly or disabled. And the average gross monthly income of a participating family is under $2,000 a month with the average subsidy at $703 a month.

The average family size is a little more than two. And the average number of years in the program for all families is 7.9.

These figures were presented to the Guilderland Town Board in a report from James Mastrianni whose business — JEM Inc., named for his father and predecessor, Joseph E. Mastrianni — oversees the federal program for the town.

After a hearing in which no members of the public commented, the board unanimously approved a five-year housing choice voucher plan, which will run from 2025 through 2029.

“We’ve been working with the town of Guilderland since 1982,” Mastriani told the board, “and we help almost 5,000 families in New York state.”

He described the federal voucher program run by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, commonly called Section 8, as “the major program to help the elderly, the disabled, and low-income families afford safe, sanitary, and decent housing.”

In general, Mastrianni explained, “It’s best to pay about 30 percent of your income toward your rent …. If you pay more than that, you’re rent-burdened.”

Therefore, he said, what the families in the program pay for rent is capped at 30 percent of their income with the government making up the difference.

People in the program “can go up to 40 percent of their income for rent because we do not want to put participants in a situation where they’re being rentburdened.”

He went on, “If we put people into a situation where they’re paying more than 40 percent, it typically doesn’t end well for the landlord.”

Mastrianni also said, “Having stable housing is very important for anyone to be able to achieve good outcomes in their life. And we know that having stable housing also leads to stronger communities.”

The fair-market rent, Mastrianni explained, is set at the bottom third of the average rent in an area. “From that, we develop a payment standard,” he said, explaining that, for Guilderland, “It’s around $1,500 to $1,800 for a two-bedroom [apartment].”

Most of the Guilderland families are in two-bedroom apartments, he said, because that is what is being built.

While the waiting list for Guilderland is long, Mastrianni explained that just 76 of the 333 applicants on that list either live or work in town. “And people who live or work in the community move up the waiting list faster than those who do not live or work in the community,” he said.

Councilman Gustavos Santos asked how long it took for someone to get into the program.

“The next person we’re going to help, they applied on Aug. 8, 2022,” Mastrianni replied.

Guilderland had tried to use Section 8 housing spaces allotted to the neighboring town of Knox that were not being used. “We tried, but Knox was not amenable to that,” Mastrianni said.

The first goal listed in the progress report is “Expand Supply of Assisted Housing” with the progress being: “Management has applied as notices of funding of availability have been announced.”

The demand for the program outweighs the resources, Mastrianni explained to the board in his 2023 presentation.

Another goal is to improve the quality of housing.

This year’s tally showed a total of 159 inspections of Section 8 housing venues in 2023 with 18 failed inspections.

The report notes that Fair Housing Laws are complied with and case-workers hold industry certifications that include fair-housing training.

It also says that a full-time program-integrity coordinator works to reduce fraud and program abuse. 

The goal of promoting self-sufficiency for assisted households, the report says, is handled by providers for budget, credit, employment, and homeownership coordination.

Family Self-Sufficiency

This year’s report noted that Guilderland has eight participants in the Family Self-Sufficiency program.

Last year, Nancie Williams, working for Mastrianni’s company, explained to the board that the Family Self-Sufficiency program is “to remove a disincentive for families who are working and have earned income to do well.”

Williams said that doing well can lead to a loss of benefits that is “devastating to the family.”

She gave the example of a family where the wage-earner was given a raise of 25 cents per hour. “She lost her child-care subsidy of over $600 a month,” said Williams.

So what the Family Self-Sufficiency program does is create an escrow account for the family to pay into as income increases to accomplish goals such as getting education, transportation, childcare, or a home.

The homeownership program allows a family to save to qualify for a mortgage using both the funds that they’ve accumulated in their own savings and in their escrow account. “And we can help subsidize that home for a period of time for those families,” said Williams.

She also said, “We’re really the arm of the program that works with your disabled and elderly participants in the program to make sure that they have services in place to keep them as independent for as long as possible.

“And then, with your working families, to make sure that, as they increase their opportunities, that those opportunities are stable, and to help them to kind of move into an asset-building model that allows them to decrease their dependence on subsidies.”

Other business

In other business at is Dec. 10 meeting, the Guilderland Town Board:

— Approved, without discussion, the memorandum of agreement between the town and the Police Benevolent Association that will extend the collective bargaining agreement from Jan. 1, 2025 to Dec 31, 2027.

Wages are being increased 3 percent for each of the three years.

And annual seniority pay is being set at $1,000 for officers who have worked for the department for 10 to 14 years; at $2,000 for 15 to 19 years; and at $2,500 for 20 or more years.

“I think everybody thought it was fair,” said Supervisor Peter Barber.

“And this is what we already budgeted for,” noted Councilman Jacob Crawford; and

— Heard praise for C.J. Gallup, who is retiring as the town’s parks director.

“I don’t know somebody who took more abuse better …,” said Barber. “The guy was calm and he delivered.”