HUD official tours of upstate NY’s vacant homes; lawmakers want federal housing help

HUD official tours upstate NY’s vacant homes

BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York lawmakers brought the nation’s top housing official through some of Buffalo’s most forlorn neighborhoods Friday, seeking support for a $300 million program to help cities with vast stocks of vacant housing that predate the nation’s foreclosure crisis.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan stopped short of endorsing the Community Regeneration, Sustainability and Innovation Act introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer and U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, but indicated his agency was on board with a key provision to give individual cities a say in how to use federal money to combat blight.

“We need to have the flexibility across our programs to support local initiatives and ideas, not to have a one-size-fits-all policy,” Donovan said on 19th Street, where six abandoned homes are being renovated and resold under a local community development initiative.

“The time has come for the federal government to recognize that change comes from the community level,” Donovan said.

Buffalo, after decades of manufacturing and population losses, has one of the nation’s worst vacant housing problems, with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 empty homes pulling down property values and inviting crime. The city is about halfway through an initiative by Mayor Byron Brown to demolish 5,000 empty homes in five years.

The issue is also getting state government’s attention with a plan by Gov. David Paterson to create a Cabinet-level adviser to oversee a statewide program to help acquire and demolish vacant buildings. Paterson will announce the program, which would begin in Buffalo, in his State of the State address in January.

“This plan is about more than fixing up old buildings,” Paterson said in a statement. “It’s about jobs. It’s about affordable housing. It’s about green development and it’s about building a sustainable future.”

The legislation proposed by Schumer and Higgins would establish a three-year, $300 million demonstration program involving 15 large cities and 15 small cities with large-scale property vacancy. Cities would have the flexibility to use funding for things such as finding new uses for architecturally or historically significant buildings and redeveloping abandoned properties or preserving them as green space. A new council including members from various federal agencies would offer technical assistance and support.

Syracuse, which has lost 30,000 residents since 1980 and has an estimated 1,500 vacant properties, is another potential candidate for the program. Donovan’s upstate tour included a stop there later Friday.

While residents of Buffalo’s 19th Street said they would be happy to see abandoned homes renewed, some favored pouring resources into fighting the crime that they said had contributed to the exodus in the first place.

“There were three (police) raids on this street alone this summer. It’s very terrifying,” said resident Richard Smith, adding that he’s moving out next week. “Twelve to 15 officers show up in cars and they bust down doors and break windows.”

“My kids cannot play outside because of the drug activity,” said another neighbor, who said she frequently calls police and was afraid to give her name.

Donovan said a task force put together by the Obama administration to help cities in transition includes a public safety component.

“Successful neighborhoods aren’t just about good housing,” he said. “They’re about good schools, safe streets. All of those have to come together.”