Goals of the Dutchess County Housing Trust Fund include:
- Provide financial support for the creation of affordable housing distributed throughout Dutchess County.
- Make affordable housing activities throughout the county more competitive for securing other funding sources.
- Support housing which is a priority for the county but for which other funding is unavailable or very limited.
- Prioritize projects that result in the creation of housing at higher levels of affordability.
The Housing Trust Fund's framework includes three overarching programs, each with a variety of potential eligible activities. For each funding round, the County will indicate which programs and activities are eligible for funding at that time.
Housing Creation and Preservation (HCP) Program:
- New affordable rental housing via new construction, rehabilitation of existing housing stock, and adaptive reuse of non-residential structures. Funded projects may be fully affordable or mixed-income. Single-room occupancy (SRO) rental housing is eligible under this category.
- Acquisition-only for the creation of affordable rental housing (limited to projects by non-profit development entities).
- Acquisition and/or rehabilitation of occupied, naturally-occurring affordable rental housing with income-eligible tenants to secure long-term affordability with applicable compliance periods.
- Preservation/rehabilitation of existing affordable rental housing with expiring compliance periods.
Infrastructure and Pre-Development Support (IPDS) Program:
- Expand/extend water and/or sewer infrastructure for affordable and mixed-income housing developments.
- Development of generic environmental impact statements (GEIS) to streamline the development of affordable/mixed-income housing supported by the local municipality. GEIS must be supported by zoning to permit and streamline the creation of affordable housing via inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, or other strategies.
- Zoning revisions to permit and streamline the creation of affordable housing via inclusionary zoning policies, density bonuses, or other strategies. A municipal match will be required.
- Oversee administration of affordable units created via municipal inclusionary policies, density bonuses, or other strategies.
First-Time Homeownership (FTH) Program:
- Support a locally-sourced program for subordinate or “soft second” mortgages to provide down payment and closing cost assistance for low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers who can afford a mortgage but lack savings to cover the down payment and/or closing costs.
- Support construction or rehabilitation to create affordable homeownership opportunities for first-time homebuyers undertaken by non-profit entities.
