MONTICELLO — The Sullivan County Legislature approved $2 million of grant funding to bolster the county’s stock of low-middle income rental housing during their meeting on Thursday, July 24. The move was spearheaded by District 1 Legislator Matt McPhillips and is an effort to address the shortage of affordable and quality housing space that Legislature Chair Nadia Rajsz called a “housing crisis.” 

The $2 million will fuel two programs: the Rental Rehabilitation Program, which provides funding for landlords to rehabilitate existing rental units, and the New Rental Construction Program, which distributes funds to developers for the construction of new rental units.

Division of Planning Commissioner Heather Brown told legislators that there is a significant amount of buildings known to be dilapidated in the county that have not been put through the formal condemnation process. “I think that we’ve all seen the building[s] on the side of the road, the house is collapsing, the roof has fallen through, and technically it’s not condemned on paper, but we all know that it’s not livable.”

Brown said the Rental Rehabilitation Program targets families at or below 80% of the median household income, and the New Rental Construction Program targets families at or below 60% of the median household income. According to 2023 housing statistics from Data USA, the current median household income for Sullivan County is $69,826. 

Brown said affordability was a requirement of both programs and she defined the term ‘affordable’ as not exceeding 30% of a household’s gross annual income. 

McPhillips said, “I think this is a really positive step that we can all take to try to improve the quality of housing, improve the affordability of housing, and really make a difference. Right off the bat, the funds are budgeted, we can get this framework through, approve this style of program to be able to help the residents of Sullivan County.”

Despite the cash being in hand, there was debate among the Legislators about how to replenish the funding once it has been allocated. District 7 Legislator Joseph Perrello said, “It’s easy to give money away, but it’s hard to replenish it. I want to know what the plans are for replenishing it.” 

County Manager Joshua Potosek weighed in on the debate, saying, “What you voted on were two programs, one for new construction and one for rehabilitation. They’re grant programs, they’re not revolving loans… in the 2025 adopted budget there was $2 million set aside as a one-time funding source to get this as a pilot program.”

Echoing Potosek’s comments, McPhillips said, “This is money that was budgeted, so we’ve obviously identified it as a need, and it’s really just passing the framework of these programs–how we fund it in the future, if we get applications and who reviews those–that’s all still to be determined.” 

McPhillips made a motion, seconded by District 8 Legislator Amanda Ward, to approve the framework of both programs, and the resolution passed by a 7-2 vote, with Perrello and District 4 Legislator Nicholas Salamone opposed. 

Commissioner Brown said the next steps in the process will be to create an advisory committee responsible for vetting applications and determining whether to allocate a dedicated source of revenue towards the program, thus creating a trust fund, or to make this a one-time action.

To receive grant funding from the Sullivan County Rental Rehabilitation Program, the application stipulates that landlords must be up to date on utility, mortgage, and property tax payments. The program will award priority to rehabilitation projects that assuage environmental and safety concerns, improve accessibility, or increase energy efficiency. Upon completion of rehabilitation work, landlords will enter into a binding agreement for eight years, during which time the rent must remain at an affordable rate regardless of fluctuations in tenant income.

In order to be eligible for the Sullivan County New Rental Construction Program, the application requires property developers to demonstrate a successful track record of building affordable housing in New York State. They must also present a plan to meet affordability requirements for at least 30 years through income monitoring, income verification, and marketing that targets low-middle income residents. 

Soaring housing costs

New housing market data for the second fiscal quarter of 2025 released August 1 by Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, a nonprofit that conducts research on housing and infrastructure in the region, buttressed Legislature Chair Rajsz’s warning of a housing crisis: from 2019-2025, the median home price in Sullivan County rose from $149,000 to $330,000, a 121.5% increase. 

McPhillips said the rising home prices and rent costs post Covid coupled with stagnant salaries across all industries have put residents in a financial bind, a situation he wants to alleviate with the infusion of monies into both grant programs.

McPhillips said, “I hear from a lot of employers, including school districts, that salaries don’t cover increasing housing costs. One of the biggest things I ran on was bringing economic growth and job development to Sullivan County so that young people have the opportunity to stay in the community.” He added that housing is a national issue and that many other counties in New York State are taking similar actions to close the gap between the soaring costs and what residents can afford to pay; he also said developers are being squeezed by surging costs of construction and materials. 

McPhillips concluded that the county is losing “a lot of housing stock to dilapidation and condemnation,” and that the infusion of $2 million in grant funding for both the Rental Rehabilitation Program and New Rental Construction Program “is the biggest concrete step” that the Legislature can take to help renters, developers, and landlords struggling with rising costs, and also to make Sullivan County a more desirable place to settle down for the next generation of residents.