NYAG James announces $9M expansion to grant program addressing vacant, abandoned properties

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced a $9 million expansion of a grant program to address “zombie” homes, or vacant and abandoned homes that aren’t maintained during a prolonged foreclosure proceeding.

The attorney general’s office calls it a “growing statewide issue,” per a Saturday news release.

James discussed the program expansion, dubbed “Zombies 2.0,” during a Saturday visit to the Syracuse University College of Law.

“Zombies 2.0” will provide up to $9 million in grants to municipalities across the state to address housing vacancy and blight. The grants will provide funds to increase housing-code enforcement; track and monitor vacant properties; and bolster legal-enforcement capacity to “ensure banks and mortgage companies comply with local and state law.”

“Far too many communities throughout New York continue to be blighted by zombie homes,” James said. “These abandoned houses significantly decrease property values and threaten the safety of surrounding neighborhoods. Zombies 2.0 will be a key resource for cities and town across the state to combat this nuisance, and make communities whole.”

These grants continue a program that the New York Attorney General’s office started in 2016. The “2016 Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative” provided nearly $13 million in grants to 76 New York municipalities.

This grant funding will allow previous recipients to continue their previous work, or will give first-time recipients the chance to secure funding to support their zombie and vacant-property efforts.

The “Zombies 2.0” funding is a result of the attorney-general office’s $500 million 2018 settlement with the Royal Bank of Scotland. The settlement was over its “deceptive practices and misrepresentations to investors” in connection with the packaging, marketing, sale, and issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities leading up to the financial crisis, per the release.

Pursuing grant funding

New York City–based Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is managing Zombies 2.0 with funds administered by Enterprise Community Partners Inc., a Columbia, Maryland–based nonprofit organization.

The nonprofit LISC will issue a request for applications by invitation to municipalities based on the number of abandoned residential properties within the community; the proportion of such properties compared to the overall number of residential properties; and its level of “general economic distress.”

All invitees must have populations of at least 5,000 residents and at least 100 vacant and abandoned properties, or multiple municipalities can apply jointly to “equal or exceed” the population and vacant residential-properties minimums.

Applications are due March 8. LISC is expected to announce awards April 12.

LISC expects to award grants in amounts ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 based on the “scale and severity” of their “zombie” and other vacant one-to-four family house problems.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com