Community · Active today
The rural village where RAHC is rooted today.
North Collins is a village of about 1,080 residents in the rural southern corner of Erie County, New York. Its Main Street is the civic and commercial heart of the community — a compact, walkable village center surrounded by farmland and the small towns of the Southern Tier's edge.
Like much of rural Western New York, it is a place where people work, raise families, and want to stay — but where the kind of housing that lets them do so has not kept up. Most housing development happens in cities and suburbs; villages like North Collins are usually overlooked.
RAHC chose North Collins as the first community to build in because the need is specific and local, because the village and its partners welcomed the work, and because our parent organization, The Rural Outreach Center, has worked in this region for over a decade. We hold two properties on Main Street here — one a funded new-construction project, one a historic building whose future we are still listening about.
Why rural matters here
of homes in the Village of North Collins are renter-occupied — nearly half.
village households spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
is the median year the village's homes were built — more than two-thirds predate 1960, and none have gone up in the last decade.
Renters are now nearly half the village, incomes are stretched, and no new housing has been built in a decade. 10483 Main Street is one direct response.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2020–2024 (Tables B01003, B25003, B25070, B25091, B25034/B25035), Village of North Collins.
Where we're building now
Two properties on Main Street. One funded and in approvals. One in community listening.
A corner-lot new-construction project at the heart of Main Street — high-quality rental homes for working families and individuals, designed to fit the village. RAHC's first development.
See the 10483 project
A historic Main Street lodge RAHC acquired in 2023. Before any design, we're asking neighbors what the building should become.
Read about the listening campaign