As we work on the details and logistics of setting up Rebuilding Together Southern Tier (RTST) as an official nonprofit organization, with 501c3 status, I am also educating myself more on housing and community development issues as a whole. I decided that I should compile this research somewhere, so for the moment I am starting with a blog as I get our website set up.

To become an affiliate of Rebuilding Together, we were tasked with writing a needs assessment of the area that we are intending to work in. Though we are called Rebuilding Together Southern Tier, we, at least initially, are only going to be working in Broome County, NY, so that is where our needs assessment focuses on.

Luckily for me, I didn’t have to ‘reinvent the wheel’, as they say, as there are many needs assessments, surveys, and development plans that have been made for public use by local organizations, including a hugely helpful county-wide Housing Needs Assessment that was completed this year by Broome County that came in at a whopping 312 pages! I still have the PDF open on this computer even though I completed my research weeks ago, because it takes so long to load every time I want to refer back to it.

Some notable things I learned –

1. Although poverty is declining, Broome County still has the highest rate of poverty in Upstate New York, and the second highest rate of poverty in the state, only behind Bronx County in New York City. – A Comparative Look at Poverty Levels, New York State Community Action Association; 2024
2. Almost half of all renters (47%) and more than one in four homeowners (28%) in the county are above HUD’s affordability threshold of 30% of their income going towards housing, being considered cost burdened. – Housing Needs Assessment & Strategy, Broome County; 2024
3. 70% of housing units in Broome were built prior to 1970, over half (55%) were built before 1960; with only 5% being considered “new construction”, or built within the past 20 years. – 2022-2024 Broome County Health Assessment Update, Broome County Health Department
4. According to the County Assessor, 14% of single family units rate as “poor” or “fair” condition. – Housing Needs Assessment & Strategy, Broome County; 2024
5. While the overall population in Broome County has been slightly decreasing since 2000, there are two age groups that have been trending upward, young adults (20-34) and the elderly (65 and over). 21% of Broome County’s population is 65 or older (just under 38,000 residents), compared to 18% for New York State and 17% for the US as a whole. – US Census Data

Working on this needs assessment has also given me some local pride however, as I also examined the assets of the area. I love the history of the Endicott Johnson Shoe Company, as someone who has become jaded with our current system of capitalism and greed in the United States, it’s humbling and comforting to remember innovators like George Johnson and his “Square Deal”, ‘welfare capitalism’ and employment benefits that included housing, community spaces, and even carousels! I still have pride in the fact that my first home in Broome County was an E-J house, a fact which I learned during my first trip to the Roberson Museum in Binghamton, which has a map of some of the E-J houses in Endicott on the wall in their welcome center.

I love our weird history, including the aforementioned carousels, our local cuisine of Spiedies (which no one who grew up outside of the area thinks are anything great, most notably my brother and I when my dad, who attended Binghamton University as an undergrad back when it was still known as Harpur College, wanted to revel in his nostalgia and bring us to the now shuttered dive bar “Sharkey’s” in the early 2000’s) – recipe at NYTimes), and the birthplace of Rod Serling, creator of the Twilight Zone.

And a new piece of local history that I learned, the Farm Bureau movement began in rural Broome County, which shortly thereafter led to the founding of the American Farm Bureau Federation that continues to advocate for the agricultural industry across the United States to this day.

From here we can lean into our strengths while making connections and accessing resources to invest in our aging housing stock and community to help Broome not only survive, but thrive.

Rebuilding Together
Mission – Repairing homes, revitalizing communities, rebuilding lives.
Vision – Safe homes and communities for everyone.