Habitat for Humanity, INHS celebrate funding awards

Two local organizations recently received large funding awards to help them continue to address affordable housing challenges in Tompkins County and beyond — Habitat for Humanity of Tompkins and Cortland Counties (TCHFH) and Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services (INHS).

The Ithaca Board of Realtors (IBR) presented TCHFH with a check for over $10,000 on Oct. 28, a portion of the proceeds from IBR’s annual golf tournament held earlier that month.

“We’re midway through working on a home at 1932 Slaterville Rd., and that’s where most of that money will go,” said TCHFH Executive Director Shannon MacCarrick. “Right now, we’re working on the exterior of that house. And then this winter, we’re going to move inside and do drywall and flooring and trim and cabinetry and all that good stuff. And so, the money from the golf tournament will go a really long way to push us through to the finish line on that house. And … we have some upcoming builds in 2022 in Ithaca that we’re looking forward to, so it’s a good jumpstart for the next thing.”

Judith Kirtland, Golf Task Force chair and realtor with Howard Hanna Real Estate, has coordinated the annual event since 2015.

“Our volunteers, sponsors and golfers are an integral part of the day, and even though it’s a lot of work to put the tournament together, every year it is incredibly rewarding to see the money we raise go to such a great program,” she said in a recent press release. “It feels good to make a difference.”

MacCarrick spoke highly of IBR and its long-standing support of Habitat’s work and described what it felt like to receive such a large sum.

“We’re super excited,” she said. “We knew that they were having the golf tournament this year. … We took a break for COVID in 2020, but we’ve partnered together before, and that’s been wonderful. And we were really glad to bring it back and, at the same time, not really sure how it was going to go because we’d taken a year off and COVID was still tweaking our plans and things. And so, we were really surprised by how much they raised. It was a lot more than I thought it was going to be, which was a really pleasant surprise. And they’re always so generous with their time and how much energy they put into it.”

INHS is also celebrating its own award of $1.8 million from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. According to a recent press release, the money will “support the financing of the development or purchase of affordable housing for low-income communities across INHS’s seven-county service area through the Capital Magnet Fund (CMF) Program.”

“We are incredibly grateful for the support of the CDFI Fund and CMF Program that will allow us to continue to support our mission to provide safe, healthy homes to low and moderate-income households,” said INHS Executive Director Johanna Anderson in the release. “Our organization, clients, partners and communities have faced unprecedented challenges throughout the pandemic, and receiving this support gives us confidence that, together, we can continue our impactful work.”

Joe Bowes, INHS director of real estate development, further clarified that $500,000 of that $1.8 million has been committed to the Founders’ Way project on West Buffalo Street in Ithaca (ithacanhs.org/foundersway), a $27 million project that will include 75 rental units, four new for-sale units and two nonprofit office spaces.

Bowes said that “this is the largest capital funding award that INHS has received through the Treasury,” and this was INHS’s first application to the CMF Program.

“We were pleasantly surprised that it was funded, but I think it’s a testament to the work that we do and our experience that we received the funds,” he said.

As part of the application, INHS has committed to creating 177 new or preserved units, including those at Founders’ Way. Other projects that the money will go toward include Village Grove Apartments in Trumansburg (ithacanhs.org/villagegrove) and more developments in Tompkins, Cayuga, Seneca and Tioga counties.

“We have five years to spend the money,” Bowes said. “And so, we feel like that’s plenty of time for us to meet the goal. And I think we have over 200 units in our pipeline in development, and so, we feel like we have enough projects and we have enough time. And we’re always finding new ones.”

The 177 committed units are only a portion of the over 300 rental units and three commercial units INHS plans to construct over the next five years in Tompkins County and surrounding areas.

The strong seller’s market in real estate, which Tompkins Weekly discussed over the summer (t.ly/8TWF), continues to hinder low- and moderate-income families. Habitat and INHS’s funding awards will go a long way toward addressing this and other affordable housing challenges in the area.

“We just haven’t caught a break in terms of the general market,” MacCarrick said. “Housing prices are staying high. Houses, they’re selling at or above their list price. They’re selling fast. You have to have cash to prequalify. That’s just a line of things that a family that’s lower on the income scale, or more moderate on the income scale, just can’t do. And so, I think right now, for a lot of families, it just feels out of reach to purchase a house on the general market. And so, I think there’s just more demand than ever for organizations like ours to offer some help, some relief in that.”

Both TCHFH and INHS are looking forward to the completion of several projects within the next few years. Bowes especially highlighted INHS’s work at the former Auble’s Mobile Home Park, now called Compass (see t.ly/evyx).

“We’re working right now with the state of New York to raise the funds to basically do a major upgrade of the infrastructure there — so, new roads, sewer, water, new lighting, a playground, new drainage and replacing several of the homes that are dilapidated with new homes,” he said. “And that’s a major undertaking. It’s INHS’s first foray into the manufactured home community ownership. But we’re really excited to get that started in the spring.”

And at TCHFH, MacCarrick she’s excited to finish the build on Slaterville Road and move on to several rehabilitation projects in the area.

TCHFH is accepting homebuyer applications now through Dec. 15. Individuals or families interested in affordable homeownership can visit tchabitat.com/homeownership for details on Habitat’s income guidelines and application process or call or text (607) 844-3529. Email Liz Warner at liz@tchabitat.com with questions and for more information. For more information about IBR, visit ithacarealtors.com.

To learn more about INHS, visit its website at ithacanhs.org.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Submit story ideas to them at editorial@vizellamedia.com.