A place to call home in Tupper Lake

Workforce housing project crosses finish line

TUPPER LAKE — We’re thrilled to celebrate the completion of nine new apartments and a rehabilitated home in downtown Tupper Lake on Park Street!

These middle-market, workforce housing units were built by the Northern Forest Center and will welcome tenants in November. They help address a housing shortage in Tupper Lake, so that young workers and families can build a future there.

ACF was the first community foundation to invest in the Northern Forest Fund, by providing a $430,000 low-interest loan to get the units built. ACF and our donors have also given over $438,000 in grants to the Northern Forest Center since 2022, when the Park Street property was obtained. .

ACF’s CEO, Cali Brooks, spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, calling the Park Street project “an example of place-based investing that will pay back dividends that go far past the initial dollars. It’s about making Tupper Lake more livable and more vibrant. It’s about giving people a place to land, and a place to grow from.”

A 2023 report commissioned by the Lake Champlain–Lake George Regional Planning Board found that 7,500 new residential housing units are needed in Franklin, Essex, Clinton, and Hamilton counties over the next decade to meet workforce demands.

Adirondack Community Foundation is committed to helping develop and build those units, and was a catalyst in launching the $3.5 million Accelerate Workforce Housing initiative earlier this year. This includes a $3 million revolving loan fund, administered by the Development Authority of the North Country, for developing new homes across Northern New York.