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Tompkins County housing snapshot: population stable, renter cost burdens and affordable-housing shortfall persist
Summary
County planners told legislators that Tompkins County’s 2024 housing snapshot shows a roughly stable population (~102,000) but rising renter cost burden, unmet workforce-housing targets and a shortfall of subsidized senior housing; staff urged new policy tools and investments as the county begins a 10-year housing strategy update.
Tompkins County planning staff presented the 2024 Housing Snapshot on Feb. 3, telling the legislature that while the county’s population has remained "roughly the same — about 102,000, give or take," household formation and housing needs have changed.
"The 2024 housing snapshot builds off of previous snapshot reports," Shauna Stevenson, the county’s housing and community development planner, said in the presentation. The report shows a rise in households and a growing need for one- and two-bedroom units as household sizes shrink. Renters have become more cost-burdened between 2013 and 2023, while homeowners’ cost burden declined in aggregate.
The snapshot includes several concrete measures of shortfall. Shauna Stevenson and David West, director of housing and community development, said the county tracked about 666 new single-family homes since 2016 and about 755 workforce rental units — well short of the 2,000-unit workforce target set by the county’s earlier strategy. The report found 189 permanent supportive-housing beds created since 2016 but identified an ongoing shortage of subsidized senior apartments and single-room occupancy units for households under 30% of area median income.
Planners noted market pressures: the report lists a median household income of roughly $73,000 and a median rent of about $1,600; the presenters said someone renting a one-bedroom would need to gross over $63,000 annually to keep housing costs below 30% of income. West said prices rose during the pandemic as higher-income buyers moved into the market, and that without substantial subsidies the county is unlikely to regain the pace needed to meet prior targets.
During questions, legislators asked about the South Works project (county-supported infrastructure grant of $1,000,000 for early phases) and which housing types it will produce; planners said the first phase will deliver a few hundred affordable units and the full project could include as many as 900 homes but will mix affordable and market-rate product. Officials reiterated that the county’s levers are convening, zoning assistance to municipalities, grant-seeking, and targeted investments rather than direct land-use control.
The county will use the snapshot to inform a new 10-year housing strategy that begins this year, aiming to identify what worked, where new policy or investment is required, and how to align private and nonprofit developers with local affordability goals.
