CAZENOVIA — In early January 2023, construction began on The Landing at Burke Meadows, an affordable senior and family housing complex on 14.96 acres of land east of Burton Street in the Village of Cazenovia.

Developed by Housing Visions Unlimited, Inc., the 49-unit project includes a two-story, 33-unit building (19,500 square feet) at the top of the hill and four townhomes (2,420 square feet), each containing four units.

Twenty-seven of the units in the large building are reserved for seniors ages 60 and older.

According to Ben Lockwood, president & CEO of Housing Visions, the development’s remaining 22 units are not age-restricted, and a senior could live in them as well.

“The townhomes are family housing, but a senior could live in them depending on their family situation and income,” said Lockwood.

The project features 30 one-bedroom units, eight two-bedrooms, nine three-bedrooms, and two four-bedrooms.

The monthly rents range from $660 to $819 plus utilities for the one-bedroom units, $820 to $1,200 plus utilities for the two-bedrooms, $940 to $1,375 plus utilities for the three-bedrooms, and $1,185 to $1,394 plus utilities for the four bedrooms.

According to Lockwood, some units have a subsidy attached to them, so tenants pay 30 percent of their income toward their rent, and the attached subsidy pays the remainder of the rent.

“The tenant subsidy ensures that a tenant can afford their unit, but it is based upon their household income,” said Lockwood.

Ten of the total units — six in the large building and four spread out in the townhomes — are set aside for individuals and families who are at risk of homelessness and in need of supportive services.

Support will be provided by Community Action Partnership for Madison County (CAP), which will have an office onsite.

According to its website, CAP is a community-based not-for-profit that works for and with low-and moderate-income families in Madison County to provide education, guidance, and resources for individuals and families striving for economic self-sufficiency.

“We are looking forward to working in the Cazenovia community with these apartments,” said CAP Executive Director Elizabeth Crofut. “We serve Cazenovia residents already in different [ways], and we are looking forward to being part of this project.”

According to Crofut, the development’s supportive housing units will specifically serve individuals with mental illness, survivors of domestic violence, and young adults ages 18-24.

“It can be any youth who are at risk of homelessness or homeless,” said Crofut. “[They could be] somebody who has to leave their home because their parents have asked them to, or they might have conflict with their parents, or they may be aging out of the foster system. There is quite a variety of ways that people will need housing at that age.”

CAP will help Housing Visions to identify and screen the most suitable applicants for the 10 units by working with and receiving referrals from multiple other local agencies, including Liberty Resources’ Help Restore Hope Center and the Madison County Department of Social Services.

Crofut noted that one aspect of CAP’s referral system is the Single Point of Access program, which helps providers connect people with mental illness to mental health services that can accommodate them.

“Through these services, people with mental illness can connect to treatment, communicate with providers, and get help finding benefits, including housing,” she said. “We have a local committee facilitated by Madison County Mental Health Department. These committees exist statewide”

According to Crofut, CAP will meet officially with the supportive housing residents once a week and will maintain constant contact with them.

CAP staff will be onsite during business hours on weekdays and during the daytime on weekends. After hours, CAP will be available on an on-call basis in case of emergencies. Residents will also be provided with contact information for the local mobile crisis team in the event of a mental health crisis.

Crofut said the level of assistance/support that will be required of CAP will vary from tenant to tenant, depending on their service plans.

“It will be a mixed population that we are working with, and some will need more assistance than others,” she said.

She explained that while more self-sufficient tenants might simply require check-ins to see how they are doing, others might need help keeping appointments, making sure they have the groceries they need, and securing transportation to medical appointments and support groups for example.

According to Crofut, CAP’s presence will also allow the development’s other residents to utilize similar services to those available to the supportive housing units.

“Domestic violence affects all ages and so do mental health issues, so we are not just going to limit our services to somebody that is under 60,” Crofut said. “If there is somebody in the rest of the population that may need our services, that is always a possibility too.”

Service and operating funding for the supportive housing is provided through the New York State Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative.

According to Lockwood, the program ensures that CAP has long-term operating funding in place to provide the appropriate staffing and support for the 10 set-aside units.

“I recognize that terms like ‘mental illness’ and ‘risk of homelessness’ cause concern,” said Mayor Kurt Wheeler. “At the same time, the reality is that many of our current neighbors here in Cazenovia already suffer from these challenges but often without the appropriate support. As a teacher, I am acutely aware that mental health problems and [the] risk of homelessness are issues that impact many children in our school. As a community, we are strong enough and gracious enough to help overcome these challenges, especially with the professional support of Madison County CAP.”

CAP Community Services Director William Nicholson also emphasized that the project will enable CAP to help some particularly vulnerable individuals — who are already members of the community — to be safe, gain stability, build skills and resilience, and move forward with their lives in a location that is highly conducive to healthy living and community and social engagement.

“Largely, we find that the individuals who are recipients of services such as these are really more likely to be the more vulnerable person in any interaction,” said Nicholson. “Questions of security and whatnot are appropriate, but, again, the population that we are serving is really very vulnerable, and this is a facility that has really state-of-the-art security and monitoring functions. That’s important to remember when people ask questions about this project.”

Lockwood provided the following capital stack for The Landing at Burke Meadows, which he described as “fairly customary” financing for these types of developments across the state:

NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance funding: $2,500,000
NYS HOME: $2,640,000
NYS Senior Program: $3,000,000
Federal Home Loan Bank: $500,000
Tax Credit Investor Equity: $11,727,658
Deferred Developer Fee: $464,381
Permanent Loan: $420,000
Total: $21,252,039

“[Housing Visions] applied for and received multiple grants and funding sources to make the final product affordable to seniors and other tenants while still being built to high standards,” said Wheeler.

According to its website, Housing Visions is a Syracuse-based not-for-profit developer, general contractor, and property manager with a mission to be the catalyst for sustainable positive change in neighborhoods through real estate development and community collaboration.

The company serves low- to moderate-income households including special populations such as veterans, the physically disabled, the developmentally disabled, survivors of domestic violence, and the homeless.

Community Resources for Independent Seniors (CRIS) — the leading advocate for seniors in the Cazenovia, Nelson, and Fenner areas — reached out to Housing Visions years ago to address a need for senior housing options in Cazenovia and the surrounding Madison County community.

“After years of research, [CRIS] selected Housing Visions to develop a senior housing project for our community based on their extensive experience and outstanding reputation throughout CNY and the Northeast,” said Wheeler.

The mayor added that CRIS and Housing Visions evaluated multiple potential locations for the project in the Cazenovia area and selected the Burke parcel as the site that best suited their needs.

On Nov. 4, 2019, the Village of Cazenovia Board of Trustees passed a resolution approving the zone change (R-10 to Planned Development District) requested by Housing Visions to permit the construction and operation of its proposed senior/family housing complex.

On March 9, 2020, the Village of Cazenovia Planning Board approved the final site plan for the development.

“[Housing Visions] applied and went through a rigorous review process that included numerous compromises and changes to their original plan to better meet the needs of our community and the neighborhood,” said Wheeler.

Construction on The Landing at Burke Meadows is expected to be complete by fall 2024.

“The village is in regular contact with [Housing Visions] and will remain so throughout the construction process and the life of the development to ensure that it is built, maintained, and operated in a manner that is beneficial to our community,” said Wheeler.

Similarly, Lockwood remarked that everyone at Housing Visions recognizes the trust that has been put in the company to develop and maintain a high-quality development that ultimately benefits not only the inhabitants but the village itself.

To learn more about Housing Visions, visit housingvisions.org.

For more information on CAP, visit capmadco.org.