We Need More Young Families.
A Policy Note: June 2025
The above image is from the New York Rising Reconstruction Report that was published 3 years after Hurricane Irene (2011) devastated much of the Mountain Top and Windham. It is curious in that it highlights that at the time of the 2010 census, Windham had a total population of 1703 people, and the demographic groups were as follows:
0-19, age group: 20.2% of the total population
20-34, age group: 11.3% of the total population
35-49, age group: 21% of the total population
50-64, age group: 25.3% of the total population
65-Over, age group: 22% of the total population
This translates to 52.5% of the population under the age of 50 in 2010. Leaving only 47.5% in the retired or nearing retirement age brackets. By 2020, this had flipped and favored the retirement [ 65+ years of age, 29.7% population] and nearing retirement age [49-64 years of age, 29.5% population] brackets, with 59.2% of the total population in these two groups. This is all while the population grew by only 5 people, from 1,703 (2010 census) to 1,708 (2020 census). Meaning, unfortunately, for our community, the replacement population is not based on groups of youthful families turning to Windham to make a life, but from older, middle-aged people looking to settle down in retirement.
The striking element is that, essentially, it would appear that Windham lacks growth in the most important age bracket— the 20 to 36 age range that is so critical to community development. This demographic group just seems to have fallen off the cliff in 2020. If we add together the 2010 census results for the ages 20-34 and 35-49, we get a result of 33.3% or roughly 1/3rd of the population. If we do the same basic calculations with the same age groups in the 2020 census data, we get a total of 26.7% of the population and a loss of 6.6%. In a period of ten years, we see that our town has shed roughly 112 residents from this critical age group of 19-44. Unfortunately, the date sets I’ve found aren’t fine-grained enough to give us true insight into who is exiting the community fastest during this period. However, I hypothesize that it is from the age group that makes up the residents aged 20-36. In any case, this type of population exodus cannot be sustained in our community without ultimately adversely affecting the town’s economy and overall quality of life.
The next interesting fact is that in 2010, the median age of the population was 48.5 years, an increase of 4.2 years of age from the 2000 census’s median age of 44.3. In just another 10 years, that same median age group was now 52.7 — again, 4.2 years older. If this linear progression continues, in 2030 our median age will be 56.9 years. If this trend continues to 2050 (25 years from now), the median age will be 65.3 years. Essentially, we will have a population that is trending towards a majority of it being of retirement age. This aging trend in our population hints at both a long-term decline in the population base as well as in our economy, all of which is associated with a population collapse.
So, how do we retain and attract Families into our community?
Affordable Housing
Careers that can sustain long-term economic growth
Childcare
Quality Of Life
We must approach this from a holistic point of view, which means we need to develop affordable housing and career development in a simultaneous fashion. Such a development is difficult but not impossible to achieve since affordable housing and career opportunities are so intertwined. We should be looking at these two issues not as separate issues but as part of a larger whole. This is difficult but necessary since, without affordable housing, no meaningful job growth can occur, and without meaningful job growth, no affordable housing can exist.
The most effective way to attack these issues is to start locally based programs to increase some of the much-needed infrastructure repair programs. By developing a program that improves the following conditions:
Storm Water Controls
Bike Lane Construction
Resurfacing Roads
Adding Sidewalks
We want our own Department of Public Works to take the lead on these projects and become the source of direct long-term employment. A more proactive attitude to our infrastructure will create long-term jobs within our community and ensure a higher standard of living.
The town can only provide so many jobs in this manner. However, we can create Community Owned Enterprises, specifically Broadband Internet services, based on a multistakeholder model— which will provide the necessary broad employment opportunities for the development of high-end technology jobs from technically trained installer technicians to software engineers and business managers. We can spread this cooperative across the entire Mountain Top, helping to bring affordable and quality internet service to those communities that are underserved now. After which, we can spread this out to communities all across Greene County.
Childcare is, of course, a necessity in our society since we live in a world where a 2 parent income structure is necessary. It’s an issue we’ve not fully addressed in our community, and one that I will address. We need quality daycare for children aged 0-3 years, especially in our community. This is a critical function of my proposed multigenerational community center: to provide childcare for 0-3 years of age for the complete year and after-school programs for pre-k school and school-aged children, along with summer programs. Without effective and affordable childcare in our community, we can never hope to retain or attract the young families that we need to reverse the trends in demographics. Therefore, this has to be a priority of the local government to ensure that our community can sustain itself into the future with a broad base of residents ranging from children to retirees.
Finally, we have to ensure the quality of life in Windham is attractive to people. The quality of life in Windham will be determined by all of these factors: affordable housing, job creation, and childcare. As well as social activities. We need to encourage the development of pro-community-oriented activities. In an age of alienation and isolation, it is vital that the town create free events to bring together the community year-round. These types of events, when coupled with positive growth in jobs and affordable housing, will make Windham not only a tourist destination but also a community that is a destination for families to live in.
We need a local government that wants to build a community of full-time residents and not just a mecca for vacation rentals.