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With no projects to approve during its most recent meeting, the city Planning Commission heard more about housing and long-term planning efforts from city Development Department officials.
Deputy Development Director Kasie Foulk presented to the commission, beginning with city demographics.
"Our poverty rate is quite high at 25%," Foulk said. "Our median household income is $43,000, which hovers around the 80% AMI rate, so when we're looking at HUD and New York State housing grants when they go off of their household area income, the majority of the city falls into that category."
The city's median age is 39.8, with 11,720 people employed. The median poverty value is 87, taxes are at about $6,000 and 96% of people have health care coverage. Foulk added that the city was ranked second place in 2017 in chronically homeless individuals on the annual point in time count.
"That's New York State as a whole," Foulk said. "HUD does an annual point in time count every year in February, usually really early, and it's to catch the most vulnerable on the street. I think usually our PIT number runs around two or three. We know there's more than two or three homeless people or people without housing, but the point in time count is very specific to the people that they see on the street. It's usually very early in the morning and very cold, so we're not going to see them."
That is also a required time frame for HUD.
Foulk said there is also a food insecurity issue in Chautauqua County as a whole, which has increased from 2024 to 2025.
The United Way did a study a while ago on a national level, getting an atlas report for each county, reflecting the current cost to live and work in the current economy. This includes housing, childcare, food, transportation, healthcare, technology and taxes. It does not include saving for emergencies.
"This is just a really brief snapshot of the amount of money that it takes annually per household," Foulk said. "Two adults, two children, the annual total of survival is $68,000, which is quite significant when you're looking at the average median income, because a household is typically four people when they're doing the AMI calculation and as we saw that was at $43,000. So right now our residents aren't making nearly enough to hit that survival rate."
This, Foulk said, means something has to go, whether that is housing quality, repairs, childcare, groceries, or not having a car. Foulk then shared with the commission a map breaking things down by census track with people's annual income. She also shared a map showing the percentage of people below the poverty line in specific areas of the city.
The software that Foulk said the DOD uses to make these maps also puts together suspected rentals in the city, which as of August 14 comes to 4,793, estimating the city has about that many rental properties. Another map Foulk shared reflected the percentage of renters that are cost burdened, which she noted to be quite a few.
She then went into the city's report of concerns, starting January 1, 2026, and running to September 1.
"Anything that was reported to us so far in 2026 can be found here," Foulk said. "Our top complaint is junk and debris. Our second is the other miscellaneous line. When people are reporting in Gov Pilot they can select other, and at that point they can type in whatever they want in that bar. A lot of it is like construction without a permit, unsafe conditions. They can pretty much type whatever they want and it falls into that other category."
Other concern categories include structural, high grass, hazards, general and vehicles.
Foulk then shared a chart highlighting properties that the city asked to vacate in 2026. The chart included a timeline, dating back to 2007. Right now, the average number of condemned houses in the city are around 300, Foulk said.
Foulk then discussed the vacancy rate, also shown on a map of the city, the city's violent crime report, and permits issued in 2026, currently number 474, which Foulk noted has increased substantially since September 1 already.
The DOD has a number of grants including a leading and lead prevention grant that the city is partnered with the county for, a vacant rental program in partnership with CODE Inc., Restore 60+, TAG, a government consolidation grant that they were recently awarded; the city being a HUD Entitlement city, CDBG Emergency Repair, a Healthy Homes Production grant, a Rental Rehab program, and ARPA. There are also several categories under CDBG and economic development.
Foulk briefly discussed the city's rental registration program, vacant property registration, the DOD working on updating existing codes, the city and DOD's local partners, and a few other issues, before wrapping up her presentation with a brainstorm with the Planning Commission for questions, comments and concerns.