Building Community

Dakota Inman took a teaching job in the North Country in 2021 because it was a chance to live in a place where so much of what he loves— mountain biking, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, camping —is right at his doorstep.

But it didn’t take long after he started looking for an affordable home near Lake Placid before Dakota came to a stark realization:

“I literally can’t afford to live in the community that I serve,” said Dakota, an eighth-grade English teacher and varsity wrestling coach in the AuSable Valley Central School District.

Many other teachers, healthcare workers, first responders and other professionals who have run head-first into the North Country’s housing shortage could say the same thing. Which is why Dakota was so excited to learn about the Both Meadow Trail housing
development in Keene led by Adirondack Roots.

In 2024, after looking for three years, Dakota resigned himself to renting and took a break from his housing search. He spent part of that summer backpacking in Nevada and California, often without cell service. But at the top of one mountain pass, his phone
lit up with 13 text messages from friends.

Take a look at this, they said, pointing to an announcement for the new four-home complex.

With each of its two-bedroom, one-bath homes priced at $160,000, Both Meadow Trail was squarely aimed at working professionals who had been priced out of the market. That below-market price was possible because of state subsidies and a shared-equity model in which buyers own the homes, but the non-profit Adirondack Community Housing Trust owns the land underneath. Buyers needed to meet caps on household income.

Dakota leapt, quickly sending an email to Adirondack Roots. By October, he learned he had moved to the front of the list to buy one of the Cape Cod-style houses. And while it took another year before the homes were ready to sell, he closed on his first home in
December 2025.

It was a little surreal. “I spent the better part of my early twenties camping at Chapel Pond on the weekends, getting my Adirondack fix, and now I own a house five miles down the road,” he said.

In some ways, Dakota said, getting to buy a home in Both Meadow Trails felt like hitting the lottery. After all, demand was high: Over 30 people submitted applications to buy one of the homes. And Dakota knew a lot of other young, would-be Adirondack residents who had tried to navigate the area’s well-documented housing shortage before giving up and leaving.

Projects like Both Meadow Trails are important, Dakota said, because “they keep the people who create our community here.” And with resale prices capped by a formula meant to ensure affordability (and future buyers needing to meet similar income limits), Both Meadow Trails is designed to remain forever-affordable—and a model other developments can follow.

Now, as he settles into his new house, Dakota can look back and see how many people rallied to his side throughout the process. From his friends in the outdoor community who had his back while he tried to find a place of his own, to the staff at Adirondack Roots who helped him get through all the hoops a real estate transaction entails, “it’s a really good feeling to have a community that that wants me here and supported me, literally from start to finish,” he said.

He’s already taking advantage of everything he had hoped for from living here.

“Last night I got to go home from work and ski the Jackrabbit Trail,” he said. “It’s kind of wild just to know that I’m here, and that I’m going to be here. That’s really an amazing feeling.”