For many New York City residents, the COVID-19 pandemic was a chance to relocate upstate. More people are moving into the Hudson Valley than those leaving it, for the first time in a decade, according to Newburgh-based research group Pattern for Progress.

And while gentrification is transforming towns and cities across the region, with bustling main streets, the demographic shift may be a concern for some longtime community members.

Alvin Bell Sr., 88, worked at Nabisco’s box printing factory in Beacon for about 30 years, Now, most New Yorkers know the former factory as Dia Beacon, a contemporary art museum. The arrival of it was a catalyst for Beacon’s revitalization.

Bell has lived in Beacon for nearly 70 years. After his time at Nabisco, he ran a barbershop on Main Street until a fire in the summer of 2022 forced him to close up shop.

“You have to cut a thousand heads to pay your rent,” Bell said. “Who can cut a thousand heads? I’m exaggerating; you got to cut so many heads. I wasn’t making no money. I couldn’t feed my family.”

Bell feels like Beacon is selling out to gentrification.

“People from the city are coming in and they buying these houses,” he said. “And running the people, I don’t wanna say, poor people’s out. They don’t mind paying $300,000 for a house or whatever.”

Bell was awarded the title of Beacon’s unofficial mayor by the city’s former mayor. Bell says he worries longtime Beaconites like himself are being pushed out.

“Not a Black and white thing,” Bell said. “Like my mailman, me and him are really tight. He say, ‘Bell, I just don’t like it. You know, what’s happening in Beacon now.’ The gentleman, he made his own ice cream, down the block from me [barbershop], me and him are good friends, but now he can’t, rent go so high. He say, ‘Mr. Bell, I got to leave now.’ ”

Beacon City Councilor Wren Longno stops by what used to be Bell’s barbershop and says she understands Bell’s frustrations.

“It hits me on a deep level,” Longno said. “And I see the issue countywide and countrywide.”

While Longno walks down Main Street, she sees the revival of Beacon in full swing. Her hope is for a future in which all Beacon residents can live and work.

“There is a real opportunity to work with banks and community-based organizations, to again, address the affordable housing and the affordability of running a business, on a much larger scale that can actually really make a difference,” she said.

Current U.S. Census data says there are around 13,700 people in Beacon. That’s down from around 15,500 12 years ago.

Bell says he loves Beacon and has no plans of leaving.

“We supposed to love one another, show love to one another,” he said. “Not got to do with color, or you got more money than me. That’s why I say, love your neighbor as yourself.”

A study done by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition says New York workers need to make $37.72 an hour to afford to rent a two-bedroom house. (The current minimum wage in New York is $14.20.) The group says the housing affordability crisis is nationwide and impacting every county in the U.S.