Woodstock Housing Alliance (WHA), a nonprofit 501c3 corporation, is an independent Community Land Trust (CLT) with a mission to create and preserve permanent rentals and for-purchase homes for our middle to low-income residents. Woodstock Housing Alliance’s local board of directors will collaborate with Town officials and business and community leaders to create housing opportunities for year-round Woodstock residents.
Our Values
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Sustainability and Diversity, Economic and Social
We are good neighbors who believe in maintaining a diverse community. We will renovate and build quality homes that are affordable in perpetuity, energy efficient, easy to maintain, and that will last generations. Our homes will be models of both financial sustainability and environmental responsibility. We are sensitive to the unique challenges of our Catskill Mountain ecosystem.
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Social Responsibility
We are housing advocates who believe that safe and stable housing is a fundamental human right and know that the homes we will build have a positive social impact on our community. Our work will enable year-round residents to stay in our region and build a healthy balanced life for themselves and their families which, in turn, will keep their economic resources in our towns and region. Our organization will foster an inclusive environment for our residents, staff, board members, and volunteers.
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Economic Viability
We will operate a financially sustainable organization that stewards and maintains our homes in perpetuity. To accomplish our mission, we will develop significant funds from public grants and private donations. We will provide local jobs, purchase materials from local suppliers when possible, and pay property taxes to support Woodstock and our surrounding local economy. We know we are stronger together, and we are creating flexible, collaborative partnerships with Town, County and State governments, community and non-profit organizations, private businesses, and friends and neighbors who share our commitment to our diverse, vibrant, year-round residents.
40% and 50% of Woodstock households pay more than one third of their incomes on housing costs with some paying upward of 50%
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40% and 50% of Woodstock households pay more than one third of their incomes on housing costs with some paying upward of 50% •
What is middle housing?
WHA plans to build permanently affordable rentals and for purchase homes for seniors, workers and town employees, young families, and other year-round Woodstock residents. Rather than building apartment buildings that are out-of-scale to our town’s buildings and character, WHA plans to build Middle Housing structures. These housing types, such as duplexes, four-plexes, clustered cottages and courtyard buildings, are examples of middle housing. Middle Housing is the scale of single-family houses and are a seamless part of a street and block with mostly single-family homes. WHA’s middle housing will provide more housing options and can help people stay in Woodstock as their lifestyle needs change and also will provide a broad range of affordability. Below are examples of WHA’s Middle Housing Models.
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WHA is partnering with a panelized system manufacturer whose mission is to provide passive homes for affordable housing. The highly energy efficient envelopes [floors, exterior walls and roof] were used to design the following studio and 1- & 2-bedroom models. The kitchen and bathroom designs have optimized functionality with efficient space usage and are ADA compliant. The goal of these designs is to provide a much lower heating and cooling cost, giving on-going savings for those living in our units.
What we are
✓ A Community Land Trust, a non-profit organization, intended to develop and manage Affordable Housing.
✓ A non-profit organization led by a board consisting of Woodstock citizens with relevant experience and skills.
✓ An organization working cooperatively with Town, County and State government bodies and charitable organizations interested in developing and preserving Affordable Housing.
✓ The owner of land and buildings withheld from the profit-making market for the public benefit.
✓ Part of a world-wide movement to preserve the “Commons,” resources dedicated to the general good of the community.
What we are not
X A government entity
X A builder or manager of subsidized or Section 8 housing for low-income community members
X A land conservancy preserving undeveloped natural landscapes.
X A financial institution, lender or bank
X A provider of housing or funding assistance on non-WHA owned land and property
Donate your land
Donating land and/or homes to Woodstock Housing Alliance will contribute to building permanently affordable housing in Woodstock and is a tax-efficient way to solve our town’s affordable housing problem.
FAQ’s
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Woodstock is experiencing a housing crisis for all but the wealthy and those who purchased homes long ago, when many more people could afford real estate.
Here are some housing facts:
• The US 2020 Census showed that Woodstock’s population grew by 400 residents, the only Ulster County town whose population increased over the past decade. However, the number of young residents and middle-income residents decreased in this same period.
• Since 2020, at the start of COVID-19, Woodstock has had a dramatic increase in new residents purchasing houses at record prices. Woodstock housing prices have been steadily rising, while housing stock decreased. Many owners have begun using their property for short term rentals, which currently comprise about 12 percent of Woodstock’s housing. This shift has dramatically reduced the inventory of long-term rentals in Woodstock.
• In January 2023, Realtor.com noted that the median selling price for a Woodstock home was $799,000, “trending up 19.2% year-over-year.” Woodstock also has higher property taxes than other parts of New York State that adds to a property-own’s housing cost.
• The federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently reported that 45% of Woodstock renters were “severely cost burdened,” while 68% lived in “severely cost burdened and unaffordable housing.”
All of the facts listed above show that Woodstock has changed from a “Colony of the Arts” for more than a century into a place that’s pricing out artists, young families, people who grew up here, and our senior residents and work force.
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The Woodstock Housing Alliance is a Community Land Trust. As such, its purpose is to acquire or build housing for rent or sale at moderate cost, generally by owning the land and either renting housing on that land or selling homes at below-market prices while retaining land title. Home buyers under this arrangement can build equity and later sell the home, but the land will belong to the WHA, and the price of the home will remain below market price in perpetuity.
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The purpose and mission of Woodstock Housing Alliance (WHA), a non-profit entity, is to create and sustain quality housing that is affordable to a diversity of residents who love their community and intend to stay and grow as part of it. WHA intends to create a housing stock which will remain affordable by remaining outside the for-profit housing market.
As a non-profit, WHA will own the land upon which Achievable Housing will be developed for sale or long-term rentals. The cost of WHA’s homes to buyers or renters will be less than market rate. In addition, through deed restrictions, the price of rents and resales of homes will be permanently capped to guarantee that these homes will remain available for future achievable housing and will never be used as short-term rentals.
Unlike for-profit landlords and property developers, WHA creates housing that benefits not only individuals but also the entire community. WHA helps residents to be confident that they will be able to afford to live, work, create and play in Woodstock over the long term.
There is no single template for any development that WHA may create. The beauty is that each project, in its design and implementation, will be the product of the desires and needs of the community, and each project will contribute to the overall well-being of the community.
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WHA’s primary support comes from the communities we serve.
WHA’s funding will come from multiple sources, including, in the immediate future:
• Tax-deductible contributions from private residents and local businesses
• Private donor property gifts (homes and land), through estate planning and direct contributions
• Grants from New York State, Ulster County, and Federal programs
• Grants from private foundations to subsidize specific projects
Potential additional fundraising tools:
• Community Wealth-Building investment bonds through collaborations with local financial institutions, with a guaranteed rate of return at the bond’s maturity
• Social Impact Loans from local private family businesses
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WHA envisions modest single-family dwellings and two-to four-unit multi-family buildings in small clusters with ample green space, compatible with the neighborhoods where the buildings are located. WHA will not build large multiple-unit apartment buildings or subdivisions. WHA will also retrofit existing buildings into achievable housing.
This website shows multi-family models which contain units ranging from studios to one and two bedrooms. WHA’s partners and builders are committed to constructing simple, attractive, and energy-efficient homes for community residents who may not be able to afford current Woodstock prices but who wish to rent or own homes here.
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WHA has identified a few sites which would be prime for building Achievable Housing within walking distance from the Village Hamlet’s shops and businesses in the next few years. Securing any of those sites will depend upon raising funds for land and local government cooperation in building the multi-rental-unit buildings which are our initial goal.
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You’re optimistic! Stay tuned by joining our newsletter. We hope to break ground in 2023-2024. We will have info on how to apply on our website.
Woodstock Housing Alliance would like to acknowledge that we are on and plan to build homes on the traditional land of the indigenous people of the Catskill Mountains Region, the Mansee Lenape and Schagticoke People past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the Mansee Lenape and Schagticoke Tribes.
