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Southern Door Community Land Trust asks council to ease ARPA drawdown requirement for six-unit affordable housing project
Summary
The Southern Door Community Land Trust asked council to reconsider a contract caveat that requires the group to raise 70% of estimated project costs before drawing ARPA funds for a six-unit permanent-affordability housing project.
The Southern Door Community Land Trust asked the Binghamton City Council on Aug. 27 to revisit a condition in its ARPA grant agreement that requires the organization to raise 70% of estimated project costs before it can draw down city funds for a six-unit permanently affordable housing project at 6 Florence Street.
Why it matters: The project is, according to the speaker, the only permanently affordable housing project in Broome County led by the organization; council members and the public raised concerns about delays in accessing funds for housing amid an affordability crisis.
What the trust said Hajra Aziz, executive director of the Southern Door Community Land Trust, told council the 70% pre-funding caveat imposes an undue hardship on the organization and that similar recipients of the same budget line had not been subject to the same requirement. Aziz said the two main differences she could identify were that Southern Door is a new organization and is BIPOC-led; she asked council to revisit the clause so the project could proceed.
Council reaction and context Public commenters and council members repeatedly framed CDBG and ARPA funding as scarce resources intended for housing and neighborhood development. Council members said they were sympathetic to the trust’s request but noted contractual and budgeting processes that involve the mayor’s office and city administration.
Clarifications from speakers Aziz said she had presented the project to council several times and thanked the council, and she acknowledged that council member Rebecca Raffnell had been involved in bringing the amendment forward. She asked for support to “move this boulder out of our way” so the trust could proceed.
What was decided No vote or formal council action to remove the 70% drawdown caveat occurred at the Aug. 27 meeting. Council members said they would continue to discuss the issue with the mayor’s office and staff; no timeline for revisiting the clause was established during the meeting.
Background Speakers framed this item against a broader budget and program debate at the meeting over the use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds and unspent allocations the council said had accrued in recent years.
