Hundreds of communities across the state are looking to throw their support behind New York's goal to solving the housing crisis.
Nancy Wickmark, of Cassadaga, chairs the planning board and is working toward a statewide designation of making the village a Pro-Housing community, one of more than 300 across the state, large and small.
Village leaders have submitted a letter of intent to show support for the initiative, which includes an inventory of homes available and the growth over the last four or five years.
"It's very important," Wickmark said. "We want to get that designation. Having a small town community and homes available for growing families and for the people that have been residents here for some time, our senior citizens, is very important to us."
Wickmark says the designation is a prerequisite to the recently announced New York Forward grant where smaller villages are vying for around $4.5 million to fund a host of already identified projects designed to transform the community.
"Very significant amount of grant money for communities across New York state," Wickmark said. "Things that would make our community better for the citizens, for the businesses, for tourism. Generally for the health of our community."
The village, like many in New York, is working with its county planning leaders to help channel that state funding to smaller communities.
"Continue to raise the standard of living in Chautauqua County, to create destinations and tourism attractions," Chautauqua County Planning and Development Junior Planner Emma Cook said. "To show off our lakes, trails and state parks that we have in the county."
And it all starts with Pro-Housing status.
"If these other counties are like ours, as soon as we caught wind that this would a prerequisite to certain funding, like we as a county pushed that information out to all of our municipalities, and we've been really encouraging them to apply," Cook said.
Like Cassadaga, Wickmark is hopeful the state will recognize housing is a village priority.
"It's just a matter of working through the process and having the right information for them," she said.