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Rural housing groups warn proposed cuts would hinder preservation, call for restored funding to local RPCs
Summary
Rural housing advocates told lawmakers the governor's executive budget zeroed or cut programs serving small towns and nonmetro New York, urged restoration of rural preservation program funds and asked state negotiators to prioritize infrastructure and capacity building for rural housing development.
Representatives of rural housing networks and small‑town preservation companies told the committees that the executive budget reduces or eliminates multiple programs used by rural communities to preserve and repair affordable housing.
Speakers from the Rural Housing Coalition and New York State Rural Advocates described last year’s appropriations for small‑town programs (including a new round of funding for preservation and a $7 million Small Rental Development Initiative) and said the executive budget’s cuts would reduce local capacity. They urged restoration of funds and a modest increase so that rural preservation companies (RPCs) can match the funding levels provided to neighborhood preservation programs in urban areas.
Key asks and evidence: - Rural advocates requested restoring the rural preservation program to $8.6 million (a COLA increase and parity adjustment with urban counterparts) and preserving a $7 million small rental development program that supports 4‑ to 20‑unit developments in small communities. - They urged that any new infrastructure funding be prioritized for communities where lack of water, sewer or electric capacity is a documented barrier to housing production, and they recommended continuing a small carve‑out for RPC capacity building and technical assistance. - The Rural Housing Coalition cited a recent joint survey with the Association of Towns showing infrastructure gaps, limited local technical capacity, and lack of state‑targeted funds as the main obstacles to building housing in rural jurisdictions.
Why it matters: Rural communities rarely receive the same scale of capital or programmatic resources as the city; advocates said cuts to small‑town preservation programs risk losing existing affordable stock and will leave RPCs unable to match federal resources or to rehabilitate aging housing.
What the groups asked legislators to do: Restore proposed cuts to rural preservation and small rental programs, provide modest additional funding for RPC capacity, and direct infrastructure dollars to projects that demonstrably unlock housing production in rural localities.
