By Amy Feiereisel, 4-17-2025
The North Country has a severe need for more long term rentals and workforce housing, which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past few years, communities across the region have been trying to build that housing through grants, state programs, and private efforts like the Fawn Valley development in Lake Placid.
A new, one-of-a-kind program in Essex County will now give homeowners up to $125,000 per unit to build or rehabilitate ‘accessory dwelling units’ on their properties.
But there are some strings attached. They have to be long term rentals, and they have to be affordable to the local workforce.
New ADU program incentivizes private long term housing
Let’s say you live in Essex County, and there’s a space above your garage that you’ve always thought could be an apartment, or a spot close to your house you’ve always thought could host a small cottage… but you’ve never had the money to transform it.
The Essex County Land Bank might have a solution for you.
This summer, the land bank will start giving local homeowners up to $125,000 to build or rehabilitate housing on their property through a program called ‘Plus One ADU.’
It has $1.5 million to distribute, and the funding comes from NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) and the Housing Trust Fund Corporation (HTFC).
Financial and process support… and some strings
The Plus One ADU program is the first of its kind in the North Country.
Nicole Justice Green directs the North Country Rural Development Coalition, formerly known as Pride of Ticonderoga, which operates the Essex County Land Bank.
She says that homeowners don’t have to pay the money back, and NRDC staff will help themthrough the whole process.
“We’ll hold their hand the entire way,” she said. That includes permits, environmental reviews, and the local cocktail of town and Adirondack Park Agency regulations. “For a normal homeowner and resident in the county, that’s profoundly overwhelming. We are basically that caseworker between you and the state.”
But there are a couple of stipulations, which Green said boil down to “it has to be affordable, and it has to be long term.”
The finished units can’t be used as short-term rentals (STRs). They have to be rented long term, and at prices attainable to the local workforce. Homeowners who sign up commit to long-term renting for a decade, and at an affordable market rate rent, which will be recertified annually with the Essex County Land Bank.
Green says they’re basically trying to build up housing stock that won’t become a second home or short-term rental for visitors. “So that when those folks come to visit, they have people who want to serve them, people who are working in construction, people who are running all these wonderful agencies that do this great, good work.”
Moose River Commons, a small development of 19 single-family homes in Old Forge completed in 2014 by local private developer Mike Mitchell. Photo courtesy of Mike Farmer
Addressing a big housing problem
Affordable housing across the North Country has been an issue for a long time now, and it’s gotten worse in recent years, as second homeowners or rental agencies have bought up local housing stock.
In addition, building new housing in Northern New York, and the Adirondacks in particular, is challenging and expensive, because there’s less infrastructure, lots of regulations, and very few builders.
That’s why affordable housing hardly ever gets built.
It’s also why, years into a housing crisis, Green says things are just as bad as they’ve ever been. “We’re at a fever pitch of a housing crisis that is not getting better, has not gotten better,” she said.
She’s hoping the new Plus One ADU program can be a step in the right direction.
And it works for the Essex County Land Bank, because it’s a way for the organization to help create new units without owning property or hiring contractors.
“As a small public authority, we don’t have the capacity to be landlords,” said Green. “But we know there’s a way in which we can help, and that’s by empowering private property owners to renovate and also create new units that they already have in their portfolios.”
The land bank, which was created in May of 2023, and is one of the few land banks in our region, has two mandates: remediating blighted housing and creating affordable housing. Green says the new program does both.
Lake Placid residents attend a public feedback session about STR (short term rental) restrictions and zoning in the Town of North Elba. 2022. Photo: Amy Feiereisel
More ‘nimble’ funding
Green encouraged anyone who’s interested in the program to call her office, and said that staff will happy to talk though details. She said a lot more people are eligible than will think they are.
Green said that’s because this funding is a lot more ‘nimble’ than previous Homes and Community Renewal Programs, which have often been too strict to work in Northern New York.
For example, if a homeowner wants to build or rehabilitate a living space for their parent, that can work in this program.
“Because we also have a massive shortage in senior living apartments, which has caused many of the folks in our elderly community to hold on to their larger homes much longer than they want to because we have little to no availability,” said Green.
The funding will be distributed to eligible applicants on a first-come, first-served basis.
For more info about the Plus One ADU program, email nteriele@northcountryruraldevelopment.org, or call 518-585-6366.
