In partnership with the Albany County Land Bank and TRC, an engineering, consulting, and construction management firm, MDG is working to complete a neighborhood redevelopment program using vacant lots in Albany’s South End neighborhood for affordable housing, including both rental and homeownership options. The development team has identified two tracts of vacant properties in the South End neighborhood within ACLBC’s portfolio — Liebel Street and Broad Street — on which nine townhomes will be developed on vacant lots, within Qualified Census Tracts and Opportunity Zones as part of this larger community redevelopment plan. The South End of Albany is a neighborhood that was redlined throughout the mid-20th century and through the 21st resulting in disinvestment by governmental and private interests, and this project will support the City’s goal to to address inequalities in historically disinvested neighborhoods and those that were hit the hardest by Covid-19.

To create deep affordability, the team is actively identifying additional partners to provide buyers with down payment support, including the NYS Mortgage Agency’s (SONYMA) GIVE US CREDIT program specifically designed to reimagine the way SONYMA views creditworthiness and to increase homeownership in historically underserved markets, including communities of color. The project will also meet the requirements for HCR’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE) Program, which the development team have far exceeded in prior projects. MDG and TRC will also seek to provide opportunities for training and jobs for residents in the neighborhood.

The nine townhomes will be available for purchase by households whose income is no more than 80% of the area median income. Additionally, the project will utilize New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) subsidy funding and ARPA funding to construct the homes.

According to the City of Albany’s Covid Recovery Task Force Final Advisory Report, the City of Albany has a disproportionate ratio of homeowners to renters, as opposed to the rest of the country, having a homeownership rate of 37.5% compared to 65.6% for the rest of the country. Furthermore, the disparity between the percentage of Black homeowners to that of white homeowners is the second largest in the country, indicative of systemic disadvantages and structural inequities for communities of color in Albany. This project will meet two top priority project types listed in the Final Advisory Report including support for quality, affordable, and diverse housing opportunities and support for local real estate development that advances community revitalization goals, as the project will rapidly create nine new affordable homeownership units for low- to moderate-income homebuyers making up to 80% of AMI. Long-term, it will be a catalyst for other opportunities including a plan for 100 new homeownership units in five years by the ACLBC in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Capital District as well as increase economic activity in the South End which can help to support stores providing for essential needs within the community.

The project will be financed through HCR’s new Small Building Homeownership Development Program with a projected subsidy amount of $200K per unit and additional energy efficiency funding of $20k per unit.