$4 million pilot program aims to renovate vacant homes into affordable housing
NEWBURGH - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has initiated a new pilot program called “Neighbors for Neighborhoods” that will provide New York State land banks with $4 million in subsidies to go towards renovating abandoned properties in New York and rehabilitating them into affordable rental housing.
The program is estimated to yield up to 80 affordable rental homes across the state for working families in cities and towns where there are active land banks.
The program will award approximately $50,000 to selected community members on a project-by-project basis to rebuild decaying properties on the condition that the new housing remains affordable for at least 20 years, aiming to keep predatory landlords at bay.
Neighbors for Neighborhoods was created with community development nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners and the funding for the program comes from the Attorney General’s 2014 and 2015 settlements with Citigroup and Bank of America over the banks’ conduct leading up to the housing crash in 2008.
“Too many communities across this state are still plagued by the blight of vacant and abandoned properties, while at the same time suffering from a critical shortage of affordable housing,” said Attorney General Schneiderman.
“Neighbors for Neighborhoods helps communities reclaim their neighborhoods from blight and will help generate the affordable housing stock that New York families need. Just as important, it empowers the people who have the most at stake in revitalizing their communities—the community members themselves. This is truly a win-win.”
Enterprise will administer the grant program, inviting 16 land banks from across the state to submit their qualifications. Per a press release from the NYS Attorney General’s Office, Enterprise will be selecting those that demonstrate “the capacity to oversee the rehabilitation of the properties and enforce the long-term affordable-rental requirement,” and those “that are in an area with a concentration of potential rental properties and a set of local community members who have the capacity to own and manage a nearby rental property.”
Land banks that meet these requirements will then be able to submit requests for the subsidy on a project-by-project basis.
If selected, land banks will then transfer ownership of the property to identified community members at little to no cost, along with a subsidy of approximately $50,000 per unit for renovation.
Neighbors for Neighborhoods builds on the success of New York State’s non-profit land banks, ten of which have reclaimed over 1,600 abandoned properties across the state since 2013. Since then, five new land banks have formed throughout the state and have received capacity-building grants from the Office of the Attorney General. A sixth new land bank is currently in the process of becoming certified.
The program is estimated to yield up to 80 affordable rental homes across the state for working families in cities and towns where there are active land banks.
The program will award approximately $50,000 to selected community members on a project-by-project basis to rebuild decaying properties on the condition that the new housing remains affordable for at least 20 years, aiming to keep predatory landlords at bay.
Neighbors for Neighborhoods was created with community development nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners and the funding for the program comes from the Attorney General’s 2014 and 2015 settlements with Citigroup and Bank of America over the banks’ conduct leading up to the housing crash in 2008.
“Too many communities across this state are still plagued by the blight of vacant and abandoned properties, while at the same time suffering from a critical shortage of affordable housing,” said Attorney General Schneiderman.
“Neighbors for Neighborhoods helps communities reclaim their neighborhoods from blight and will help generate the affordable housing stock that New York families need. Just as important, it empowers the people who have the most at stake in revitalizing their communities—the community members themselves. This is truly a win-win.”
Enterprise will administer the grant program, inviting 16 land banks from across the state to submit their qualifications. Per a press release from the NYS Attorney General’s Office, Enterprise will be selecting those that demonstrate “the capacity to oversee the rehabilitation of the properties and enforce the long-term affordable-rental requirement,” and those “that are in an area with a concentration of potential rental properties and a set of local community members who have the capacity to own and manage a nearby rental property.”
Land banks that meet these requirements will then be able to submit requests for the subsidy on a project-by-project basis.
If selected, land banks will then transfer ownership of the property to identified community members at little to no cost, along with a subsidy of approximately $50,000 per unit for renovation.
Neighbors for Neighborhoods builds on the success of New York State’s non-profit land banks, ten of which have reclaimed over 1,600 abandoned properties across the state since 2013. Since then, five new land banks have formed throughout the state and have received capacity-building grants from the Office of the Attorney General. A sixth new land bank is currently in the process of becoming certified.
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