A community's housing situation can have far-reaching effects. Just look at today's economic climate, in which many of the issues stem from homeowners and their mortgages.

In Auburn, officials and planners are zeroing in on housing as a priority issue for the coming months and years.

But while the city is not facing some of the foreclosure rates and empty homes that are prevalent elsewhere, an aging housing stock and owner occupancy rates many see as less-than-stellar are major concerns, according to city government officials.

Newly available statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show that slightly more than half - 50.7 percent - of the city's housing units are occupied by the owner. That is down slightly from 2000, when the bureau recorded 51.9 percent of the city's units to be owner occupied.

Of units that are not owner occupied, 1,014 are vacant, according to the Census Bureau. That represents 8.7 percent of the city's units.

The general consensus from most city officials is that more people in Auburn should be living and investing in the homes they own. Just how many of the housing units should be occupied by their owners, and how the city can achieve the desired ratio, is still being determined through the comprehensive planning process.

Mark Palesh, Auburn's city manager, believes half is much too high for a city's rental population. He would much rather see between 20 and 30 percent of the city's housing units occupied by renters, he said.

A person who owns the house where he or she lives is more likely to invest in that house and neighborhood, he said. It also eventually raises home values, which brings down taxes.

“(Housing) is high on the list of priorities,” Palesh said last week. “It's part of the quality of life. We're going to address it and keep working at it.”

Right now, the city is in the midst of forming a 10-year plan that will examine housing as well as economic

development, zoning, codes and other comprehensive issues. So far, members of public have offered feedback at two open comment sessions.

In a few weeks, there will be workshops for local residents to give their thoughts on specific topics. The first workshop, for which a date has not yet been set, will focus on housing.

Jennifer Haines, Auburn's director of planning and economic development, said this issue is often one that generates a lot of interest and even controversy among members of the public. And fixing housing issues is not as easy picking a number for owner occupancy, she said.

For instance, Auburn planners currently have a goal of 60 percent owner occupancy. But that number is a bit arbitrary, Haines said, because it is difficult to know just how many of the city's residents are in financial shape to own a home.

That ratio, she added, is also often specific to the community. Ithaca has a much lower owner-occupancy rate than Auburn, but Saratoga Springs is much higher.

“I think we need to challenge our assumptions on this,” Haines said.

According to a city housing study released in 2006, 50 percent of residents earn less than the city's median income of $36,721. By 2011, the study states, a projected 40 percent of seniors living in the city will earn less than $25,000 a year.

There's no doubt that residents who own the home where they live are often more willing to invest money in and improve their homes. But with so many of the city's residents (60 percent) designated at a low to moderate income level, the goal for home ownership needs to be realistic, she said.

“I don't think (raising the percent of owner-occupied homes) is a poor goal,” Haines said. “But do we push too hard sometimes for home ownership?”

One of the biggest challenges with Auburn's housing stock is the age and state of the houses themselves.

The city housing study shows that 60 percent of the homes in Auburn were built before 1939. Only one percent of the city's housing was built in the 1990s, which is far below the national average of 17 percent.

Nearly 80 percent of the city's homes are older than 40 years, which is the typical life of a single-family home, according to the study.

Once homes get that old, it costs a lot of money to refurbish them, Palesh said. Between taxes and utility costs, it becomes more affordable to divide the home into separate units and rent it to multiple tenants, he said. That leads to higher-than-ideal rates of rental housing.

Palesh said he believes that for every new, multi-family unit built in the city, two should be taken down or converted to single-family homes.

But that is easier said than done, even with the homes that everyone sees as problematic vacant, condemned housing. The city maintains a list of those units, and fire department employees check them every week for public safety reasons.

The city also maintains a housing court to deal with codes violations. But unless there is a foreclosure, it is difficult to take ownership of the structure or tear it down. There are possible programs where a city can purchase those homes and sell them to people who agree to convert them into single-family properties, but those programs take a lot of taxpayer dollars, Palesh said.

They also take a long time.

“Should the city be spending that much taxpayer money on this?” he said.

Palesh said he believes private investment is ultimately the way to deal with the city's housing problems, a point of view shared by City Councilor Matthew Smith.

According to Smith, city officials are currently working with state legislators to try and pass better incentives to encourage homeowners to improve their houses.

Specifically, Smith said he would like to see more low interest loans and tax breaks for people in the city.

There are already current programs that ease the raise in property taxes that come with improving your home. The city council also removed many of the fees and permits needed for home improvement projects.

“We want to be more aggressive,” Smith said. “The goal is to increase more single-family households. The only way we are going to do that is by offering incentives.”

Government can only do so much, he continued. The local Community Development Block Grant program uses federal funds to help lower income individuals invest in home improvements. But that only serves a certain percent of the population, Smith said.

The private sector is where these improvements happen, he said. Smith pointed to a recent announcement bout the State Street revitalization project that includes multiple housing units above downtown businesses.

These sorts of projects do not succeed unless private money is involved, he said. And the city's homeowners are the only ones who can improve their home, he said.

“The government should make it as easy as possible for people to rehabilitate their homes,” Smith said. “But the private sector are the ones who need to invest.”

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net