INHS details pipeline of homes, cites rising construction costs; Tompkins County approves $50,000 CHDF award for Varna (Freeze Road)

Kate De La Garza, executive director of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services (INHS), told the Tompkins County Legislature's Housing & Economic Development Committee on May 21 that INHS manages a broad set of programs across a seven-county footprint and is moving several projects toward occupancy while pressing against sharply higher construction costs.

The update, delivered in the Legislature chambers, covered INHS's homeownership programs, a Community Housing Trust (CHT) portfolio, a 151-pad manufactured-home community called Compass in Trumansburg, and rental development including Village Grove and a new Varna project on Freeze Road. The committee then moved and unanimously approved a negative environmental declaration for the Freeze Road (Varna) Apartments and authorized the county's $50,000 CHDF (Community Housing Development Fund) contribution to a $100,000 CHDF award (the town of Dryden contributed the other $50,000).

Why it matters: INHS said supply constraints and higher per-unit construction costs are constraining affordable housing development in Tompkins County. Committee members paired the brief with two routine, required steps in the CHDF process: a SEQRA negative declaration and an authorization to disburse county CHDF funds for the Varna/Freeze Road…