NYAG announces first round of housing-recovery funding

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman today announced an award of $3 million for the Greater Syracuse Property Development Corp. (GSPDC) as part of his Land Bank Community Revitalization Initiative.

 

The Syracuse land bank is among six such organizations statewide awarded a total of $12.4 million in grant funding in the first round of competitive awards under the initiative, the attorney general’s office said in a news release.

 

The two-year, $20 million program provides funds from last year’s National Mortgage Settlement with the nation’s largest banks to help communities “rebuild and restore neighborhoods hit hard by the housing crisis,” Schneiderman’s office said.

 

The grant funds provide the opportunity to address both the immediate “physical and financial impacts” of the mortgage foreclosure crisis by eliminating “blighted” properties, Katelyn Wright, executive director of the GSPDC said in the news release.

 

“By addressing 70 vacant houses, we’ll [not only] combat the negative impacts abandoned properties have on quality of life in our neighborhoods, but also stabilize the values of surrounding properties and create opportunities for 50 low-to-moderate-income households to invest in home-ownership,” Wright said.

 

Besides the Syracuse area, the Erie County/Buffalo, Chautauqua County, Rochester, Newburgh, and Suffolk County areas are also benefiting from the funding.

 

The GSPDC, located at the Washington Station building at 333 W. Washington St., is an independent, nonprofit corporation that the city of Syracuse and Onondaga County created by an intermunicipal agreement, according to the city’s website.

 

The city and the county appoint a board of directors to govern the GSPDC, the website says.

 

The grant award for the GSPDC is a “tremendous boost” for the area, Onondaga County Executive Joanne (Joanie) Mahoney, said in the news release.

 

“Neighborhoods which have suffered will now benefit from this significant grant to our land bank. The land bank is up and running and this influx of support will help us address abandoned properties to keep the county moving forward,” Mahoney said.

 

Syracuse and Onondaga County collaborated to launch one of the first land banks in the state, and this “significant” grant is “great news,” Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said in the news release.

 

“The funding comes as our land bank … has begun seizing tax-delinquent properties for redevelopment or demolition,” Miner explained.

 

The New York State Legislature approved a law in 2011 establishing land banks, which can acquire vacant, abandoned, or foreclosed properties and choose to rebuild, demolish, or redesign them.

 

Lawmakers approved the legislation “following the collapse of the housing market,” the attorney general’s office said.

 

By restoring vacant or abandoned properties, land banks are intended to lower costs for local governments, benefit public schools, reduce crime, and boost the local economy, according to Schneiderman’s office.

 

However, the legislation that authorized land banks in New York didn’t provide funding for them. Schneiderman’s Land Bank Community Revitalization Initiative is “filling that gap” to allow the land banks to “fulfill their purpose,” his office said.

 

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com