"We have a housing crisis," said Wendy Rifanburg, New Berlin Town Supervisor. 

The housing crisis has not let up. 

Over in Broome, a January study on housing needs found the county needs 6,000 new units to keep up with demand.

"When you have a report that comes back and it says you need to build out 6000 units of housing to keep up with the demand here, 500 is, you know, that's good for to do in one year, but there's still a lot of work to be done," said County Executive Jason Garnar.

Garnar is talking about a project to start construction on 500 units county-wide this year. A step in the right direction, but less than 10% of that 6000 benchmark.

Still, every renovation, every new home or apartment counts.

Something you could see after the Victory Lofts opened last year in Johnson City.

"A $60 million development and they made 150 apartments out of it. It's 100% full within a matter of months, I would say within like three or four months it was 100% full. And that's what you see when a new place opens up."

So while Broome County has seen success in bringing in new businesses like the Amazon warehouse and the new Dick's House of Sport in the Oakdale Commons, the lack of affordable homes coupled with inflation and high mortgage rates have worsened the crisis with no fast solution.

"The first thing that we hear from people, from companies who are thinking about moving into Broome County is if I bring in 200 jobs, are you going to have enough people to work in? Is there enough housing here for the jobs that I'm going to be bringing in?" Garnar explained.

Chenango County is dealing with similar problems.

It saw 18 new units open in New Berlin this week. Again, progress, just not enough.

"It was fully booked before we even opened that," Greater Opportunities CEO Mark Silvanic said. "There's a waiting list. Unfortunately, there's a waiting list for these kind of projects. There's a need for it in all the communities."

The newly renovated Red Mill Apartments were fully funded by the state. But securing funding in Upstate is a challenge, according to Silvanic, who said over 90% of grants go Downstate, making it hard a project like this to happen.

But they are crucial for businesses like Chobani Yogurt and the Raymond Corporation.

"We have a couple thousand jobs that are available right now in in Broome County. More people would be living here if they had a place to live," Garnar told us. 

It's too soon to tell just how much Governor Hochul's new  affordable housing initiatives including a five year plan to build 100,000 new homes will go to solve the Southern Tier's biggest problem.