2027-2037 HOUSING STRATEGY

BACKGROUNDTompkins County adopted its first Housing Strategy in 2007 and the second in 2017. These past strategies set targets for housing to be developed by the private market, mostly focused on the affordable subset of the housing ecosystem. For twenty (20) years the County has tracked development and monitored changes in demographics as well as the real estate market. Since 2018, the County has produced and published a Housing Snapshot tracking progress on the 2017 Strategy targets roughly every two (2) years, with most recent Snapshot released in late 2025 based on 2024 data. Both the Strategies and the Snapshots are available on our website at https://www.tompkinscountyny.gov/All-Departments/Planning-and-Sustainability/Housing. Through efforts implementing past housing strategies, and work accomplished by our community partners, the Tompkins County community has been successful in encouraging the housing market to focus the majority of growth in existing Development Focus Areas, especially the Urban Core, reducing the pace of sprawl and densifying where we have infrastructure, services, and amenities in a fiscally efficient and responsible way. The significant uptick in market rate and affordable housing development has increased the vacancy rate, which has moved from extreme shortage to the lower edge of ‘healthy’ in the last several years. The for-sale market has moved from extremely overheated to a milder market where homes are mostly selling close to asking price and taking a month or two to sell, after years of sales far above asking, often in cash, and frequently within weeks of coming onto the market. While our market is moderating, housing remains significantly more expensive than that of surrounding counties and construction costs for new units are often too high to make middle income housing development viable. The market is shifting and it is time to look at where we are, assess what has been achieved, address why we’ve struggled to meet some targets, and establish achievable updated targets for the next ten (10) years based on current data and conditions. Diverging from past strategies, we hope to evaluate and track the full market, not just the affordable and special needs niches. As the market shifts, our strategies will also need to shift. We know there is still significant work to be done to ensure that the people who live and work in Tompkins County, and the people who grow up in Tompkins County, can afford to live in Tompkins County along with those who want to move here to retire, to go to school, to grow a family, to build businesses, and to participate in the high quality of life this area provides. PURPOSE OF REQUEST Tompkins County will use $50,000 in New York State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Community Planning funds, along with $75,000 from Tompkins County Industrial Development Authority (IDA), to update and expand the 2016 County Wide Housing Needs Assessment and 2017 Housing Strategy which projected housing goals for the County from 2016 through 2025 and developed a local workplan for that period. This RFP seeks proposals from qualified applicants to support the County in the process of developing this needs assessment and strategy. Additionally, we are seeking innovative approaches for outreach during the strategy process and implementation activities that can start building small wins during and immediately following this work. The CDBG funded portion of the project will cover all CDBG requirements for a Housing Conditions Assessment and Below Market Housing Needs Assessment in order to position the County, municipalities (not including the City of Ithaca as it is an entitlement community1), and partner organizations to apply for future funds for homeowner and multifamily rehabilitation programs, mobile home replacement, septic replacement, downpayment assistance programs, and other CDBG funding opportunities. In addition to fieldwork and analysis of data and plans, this work must include substantial community conversations driving the understanding of need and prioritization of future use of CDBG funds. The Tompkins County Department of Planning & Sustainability has funds in the 2026 budget to support grant writing to apply for our fifth CDBG Homeowner Rehabilitation program and proposers should consider adding this as an optional scope of work for the CDBG funded portion of the project. The IDA funded portion of the study will include the Housing Market Analysis and Housing Strategy which cover all segments of the housing market. Since preparation for CDBG Housing applications is relatively specialized work, respondents may break out the budgets and scope of work according to the funding sources and the County and IDA may choose one consultant team to complete all of the work or two (2) consultants, with one tied to each funding source. It is expected that the County and IDA will have separate consultant contracts for accounting purposes, but the Tompkins County Department of Planning & Sustainability staff will be the primary contact for the full scope of work. Business enterprises awarded an identical or substantially similar procurement contract within the past five years: None Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business (SDVOB) SDVOB Goal: 0.00% Minority / Women Business Enterprise contracting goals (MWBE) MBE Goal: 0.00% WBE Goal: 0.00% Disadvantaged Business Enterprise contracting goals (DBE) DBE Goal: 0.00%