The Binghamton City Council on Monday unanimously adopted amendments to the fiscal year '51 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) budget and the FY51 consolidated plan, including a department-revised target to reduce family and chronic homelessness by 50% and priority language for deeply affordable multifamily rental housing.

Councilwoman Rebecca Raffnell, who led the proposed edits, told colleagues that staff from the planning department and the city's HUD administrator incorporated revisions approved at a July 3 special meeting and public comments submitted afterward. "So we identified that during the 2023 to 2024 academic year, 369 students within the Binghamton City School District reported experiencing homelessness," Raffnell said, citing corrected data moved to page 61 of the plan.

Raffnell said the amendments remove a sentence she characterized as unsubstantiated about downtown demand for higher-income small-family units and landlords' preference for student tenants; she read the sentence into the record as an example of language removed. She also said the plan adds data on increases in family homelessness and unsheltered homelessness (page 75) to justify prioritizing extremely low- and very-low-income housing development.

Raffnell said she spoke with Steve Carson, the city's HUD administrator, who notified staff that priority-goal fields are subject to a character limit; she said goals 1–3 were therefore revised to fit that limit. The revised priority language kept an explicit focus on "increasing affordable and deeply affordable housing" and added wording targeting multifamily rental housing, Raffnell said. She noted that the department revised one goal to quantify a 50% reduction in family and chronic homelessness and emphasized that "strategic coordination" will be critical to reach that benchmark.

Council members formed a committee of the whole to discuss the resolution and amendments, considered the edits, and then voted to adopt the amendments during the committee session. Back in regular session, the council moved to adopt introductory resolution R25-42 as amended. A roll call during the final vote recorded six ayes and no nays; one member was absent. Votes recorded in the roll call were: Council member Rathwell — aye; Council member Madovetsky — aye; Council member Kavanaugh — aye; Council member Murray — aye; Council president pro tem Hotchkiss — aye; (one other council member recorded aye in the clerk's roll call); a council member was absent.

The council did not specify new funding allocations in the meeting. Raffnell said pages and tables in the draft—page 4, table 26 on page 51 and other data—contain challenging numbers and that corrections were made where possible. City planning director Burling and HUD administrator Carson were credited with incorporating earlier council directions and public comments into the revised consolidated plan.

The session concluded with the adoption of the plan as amended and a motion to adjourn. The consolidated plan and CDBG budget changes adopted Monday will be reflected in the FY51 plan documents submitted and maintained by the planning department.