Applications are now open for the $100 million Affordable Housing Connectivity Program, a partnership led by Empire State Development’s ConnectALL Office in consultation with New York State Homes and Community Renewal to design and install broadband infrastructure at 100,000 affordable housing units across New York State. The program, which is federally funded through the Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund under the American Rescue Plan Act, is the largest targeted investment in affordable housing connectivity in the nation. The request for applications is available here.
“As part of my administration’s commitment to building safe, stable, affordable housing, we are leveraging a $100 million federal investment to give New Yorkers one of the most important household amenities we can offer – access to high-speed internet,” Governor Hochul said. “With work, school, and essential government services going digital, affordable homes need affordable, reliable broadband, and this funding will help bolster our efforts to build housing equipped with the basic tools that New Yorkers need to succeed. I thank the New York delegation for supporting New York’s Affordable Housing Connectivity Program and for their partnership in helping to create housing where New York families cannot just live but thrive.”
New York’s Affordable Housing Connectivity Program is a competitive grant program designed to fund high-speed, reliable broadband infrastructure to and within low-income housing buildings. Internet service providers are invited to apply for $100 million in federal funding for retrofits to provide internet infrastructure in affordable housing rental units to support high-speed internet.
Property owners must complete a survey to be considered for no-cost broadband upgrades to their building. ConnectALL will pair eligible properties with the best proposals from Internet Service Providers to complete the installation.
The Affordable Housing Connectivity Program complements Governor Hochul’s bold agenda to increase the supply of housing, including affordable housing, and address New York’s housing crisis. Earlier this year, the Governor announced a package of executive actions to promote housing growth across New York State, including: the prioritization of Pro-Housing Communities for $650 million in state discretionary funding; a statewide assessment of state-owned sites for potential housing opportunities; the start of an initiative to address regulatory hurdles to housing production; and the creation of a program to accelerate housing growth in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. As part of the FY 2023 Budget, Governor Hochul also secured funding for a five-year, $25 billion housing plan to build and preserve 100,000 affordable homes.
New York’s ConnectALL Initiative
Governor Hochul created the $1.3 billion ConnectALL Initiative, the largest investment in New York’s 21st-century infrastructure, as part of her 2022 State of the State address. ConnectALL is designed to close New York State’s digital divide, transform the state’s digital infrastructure, and ensure that all New Yorkers have access to reliable and affordable high-speed broadband internet service. Over the past year, the ConnectALL Office has conducted listening sessions, surveys, and focus groups in every region of the state and convened industry and stakeholder forums to design its signature grant programs.
ConnectALL mobilized a statewide effort to supplement federal broadband data, securing over $664 million in federal funding to address unserved and underserved rural areas, in addition to the $100 million available for the Affordable Housing Connectivity Program. ESD’s ConnectALL Office recently published drafts of New York State’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Initial Proposal, Vols 1 & 2, and the State’s Digital Equity Plan. These plans will help guide public investments to make high-quality, affordable, reliable broadband accessible to all New Yorkers. The public is encouraged to read the plans at www.broadband.ny.gov.
ConnectALL continues to work with state agencies and community partners to promote the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which now has more than 1.6 million New York households signed up for the monthly subsidy of $30, bringing nearly $50 million in total broadband savings for those households each month
