LeadingAge New York State Budget Review April 2017

Senior Housing Senior Housing SFY 2017-18 Final State Budget Senior Housing LeadingAge NY is pleased to report that the final budget includes a $2.5 billion, five-year investment of capital funds to expand affordable and supportive housing projects. The funding is expected to create 100,000 units of affordable housing and 6,000 units of supportive housing. As noted below, a portion of this investment is dedicated to affordable senior housing. This funding supplants the Affordable and Supportive Housing Memorandum of Understanding. LeadingAge NY was part of the broad coalition of affordable housing stakeholders that worked together over the past two years to make this happen. Housing Capital Funding $125 million has been allocated for the development or rehabilitation of 100% senior housing, targeted to low- income seniors aged 60 and above. State capital funding for senior housing has been a key legislative priority for LeadingAge NY for several years, and is especially important since the HUD 202 program has been discontinued as a source of new capital. LeadingAge NY and a coalition of senior housing organizations and advocates had proposed an Affordable Senior Housing and Services Program, with its own rules and scoring criteria. The proposed language, which was included in the Senate’s one-house budget, also matched a separate bill (S.5141/A.6804) introduced by Senate Housing Chair Betty Little and Assembly Housing Chair Steven Cymbrowitz. This language was not included in the final budget but will still be an active bill for consideration by the Legislature. Access to Home Access to Home, which provides building modifications for seniors and persons with disabilities so they can remain independent, was funded at its traditional level of $1 million. Affordable New York Program The budget revives the lapsed 421-a program for New York City developers under a new name, “Affordable New York.” The program, which will run until 2022, offers tax breaks in return for reserving a certain number of apartments for people at a range of low and moderate incomes. Key changes include extending the tax break from 25 to 35 years and implementing wage requirements for large projects. Homeless Housing Assistance Program Operated by the Office of Temporary Disability Assistance (OTDA), the Homeless Housing Assistance Program (HHAP) is level-funded at $64 million. LeadingAge New York/April 2017 Page 20

LeadingAge New York State Budget Review April 2017 | Page 21