A Potential Solution to Troy's Housing Problems
Vol. III, No. 116 - Candidates talk about Housing in Troy
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Last night, the six candidates for Troy City Council introduced themselves to voters during the Meet the Candidates forum sponsored by Leadership Troy Alumni and the Troy Chamber of Commerce. While the discussion covered a variety of community concerns, one theme echoed through nearly every statement and response: housing. Attainable housing, in particular, dominated the evening, with First Ward Council Member Jeffrey Whidden going so far as to call the attainable housing situation a “crisis.”
That description struck a chord because it reflects what so many in Troy and surrounding communities already understand. Home ownership, long considered the cornerstone of middle-class stability, has moved out of reach for more and more families. Rising home prices make it harder for young families to attain housing, while rising property taxes put pressure on older residents who want to remain in the homes they’ve built their lives around. The candidates acknowledged what many in the community feel every day: Troy’s housing market is increasingly unaffordable, and the gap between what people earn and what housing costs keeps widening.
What the discussion demonstrated, however, is that naming the problem is far easier than outlining workable solutions. Council Member Susan Westfall floated the possibility of reworking the city’s revolving loan funds, originally intended to improve existing housing stock, as a tool to support housing construction. Candidate Bryan Begg suggested using public-private partnerships to spur development. These ideas show promise, but as the evening revealed, there is no clear path to solve this problem that has plauged the community for over a decade.
It is important to acknowledge that housing attainability is not a single-issue problem with a convenient fix. Gentrification raises property values in targeted neighborhoods, which can unintentionally push out fixed-income seniors whose property tax bills climb beyond what they can afford. Higher home prices also lock younger people and first-time buyers out of the market altogether, creating barriers to building generational wealth. The pressures are real and varied. Any plan to deal with them must be layered, flexible, and able to evolve as new challenges emerge.
Still, there are creative approaches that Troy could explore. One of the most promising would be the establishment of a down payment assistance program. The concept is fairly straightforward. When qualified homebuyers are ready to purchase, the city could provide a second mortgage loan covering as much as 20 percent of the purchase price. That second mortgage would help residents clear one of the steepest hurdles to homeownership—the initial down payment. Once the buyer sells the property or otherwise transfers ownership, the funds would be repaid and made available for another family.
This revolving model does not carry the same risks some might assume. After all, Troy is already in the mortgage business, if indirectly. The city’s most recent Consolidated Annual Financial Report shows that more than $15 million of the city’s investment portfolio is placed with the Federal National Mortgage Association. Better known as Fannie Mae, this government-sponsored enterprise operates nationwide, purchasing qualifying mortgages, bundling them into mortgage-backed securities, and selling them to institutional investors like local governments. In effect, Troy is already investing in mortgages—just not mortgages here.
That reality presents a compelling question. If public dollars are already supporting mortgages in communities across the country, why not reimagine a portion of that investment for use here at home? Shifting even a modest slice of the portfolio into a carefully designed down payment assistance initiative could open doors for qualified families, stabilize neighborhoods, and strengthen the tax base. It would align with Troy’s history of investing in local businesses and infrastructure by extending that same vision directly to residents seeking to put down roots.
No single program will resolve Troy’s housing challenges. But down payment assistance offers a disciplined, homegrown experiment rooted in the city’s existing financial practices. It is neither radical nor risky. Instead, it is a practical way to give otherwise capable families the chance to buy a home and build a future in Troy. If candidates and council members are serious when they call this a housing crisis, then the next step should be action. We need to ensure that the city is investing as fully in its people as it is in distant mortgage markets.
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