Community Revitalization Initiative Will Help New York Communities Restore Abandoned And Dangerous Properties
Schneiderman: We Are Empowering Local Communities To Rebuild Their Own Neighborhoods, House By House, Block By Block
ROCHESTER – Attorney General Eric Schneiderman today joined with elected officials and staff from the Rochester Land Bank to announce that his office has awarded $20 million to New York State land banks that are working to rebuild and restore neighborhoods hit hard by the housing crisis, including $1.8 million to the Rochester Land Bank. The Attorney General’s Land Bank Community Revitalization Initiative is making a new allocation of nearly $20 million to eligible land banks, in addition to the $13 million allocated through a competitive application process last year, bringing the total commitment to $33 million. Today’s announcement was made at 279 Lake View Park, a property that has been fully renovated thanks to funds issued under the previous grant Attorney General Schneiderman’s Office awarded to the Rochester Land Bank. This property will be sold to a low-or-moderate-income first-time homebuyer upon successful completion of homebuyer services training.
“Land banks are a critical tool to help communities recover from the housing crisis by ridding their streets of vacant and abandoned properties,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “With this new round of funding, even more communities will reap the benefits of this powerful tool for urban revitalization. By funding and expanding land banks, we are empowering local communities to rebuild their own neighborhoods, house by house, block by block.”
Previous funds awarded to the Rochester Land Bank were used to expand the Home Rochester Program, which takes foreclosed, highly distressed properties, renovates them and resells them for homeownership. This year’s award of $1.8 million, bringing the total investment in Rochester to just over $4.5 million for three years, will enable the Rochester Land Bank to further expand its Home Rochester Program, increasing the number of home renovations they can complete by 10 to 15 properties. In addition, funds will also enable the land bank to launch two new programs: “Strategic Blight Removal” will allow the Land Bank to demolish 10-12 severely blighted homes in areas that are undergoing redevelopment; and a new construction program—“Neighborhood Builders”—that will create 6 new homes to be built on currently vacant land, which will then be targeted to low and moderate income families.
Funding for this new round will be drawn from the $25 billion settlement with the nation’s largest banks that Attorney General Schneiderman helped negotiate in 2012. The following ten land banks in the State will receive funding: Greater Syracuse Land Bank; the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Bank Investment Corporation; the Rochester Land Bank; Newburgh Community Land Bank; Suffolk County Land Bank; Chautauqua County Land Bank; Capital Region Land Bank; Albany County Bank; Troy Community Land Bank, and the Broome County Land Bank.
“I would like to thank Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for securing $1.8 million in additional funding for Rochester’s Land Bank,” said Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren. “In just 14 months of operation, the Rochester Land Bank Corporation has proven to be critical in our continued efforts to strengthen and invest in our neighborhoods across the city. Despite difficult fiscal times, our Land Bank has been able to help us deal with our most challenged properties in new and innovative ways which, in turn, has led to neighborhood and community revitalization.”
"For Rochester neighborhoods at the tipping point between revitalization and sliding further into blight, new and creative methods of improvement and investment are needed,” said State Senator Ted O’Brien. “I applaud Attorney General Schneiderman for being a tireless advocate for the people of this state, using the proceeds of settlements wisely to help strengthen our communities, and being a very active partner in our ongoing work to transform Rochester's neighborhoods into thriving communities that provide safety and prosperity to every citizen."
“The Office of the Attorney General’s support of the Rochester Land Bank Corporation through the Community Revitalization Initiative has been the wellspring of our work in combating vacancy and blight in City neighborhoods,” said Carol Wheeler, Board Chair of the Rochester Land Bank Corporation. “The generous award provided under Round 2 will not only allow us to invest in refreshing some of the City’s housing stock, but will allow us to impact properties that have had a destabilizing effect on neighborhoods and could not be addressed with the programs currently available.”
During the decade of the housing boom and bust, from 2000 to 2010, the number of vacant properties in New York State increased 27%. Following the collapse of the housing market, the New York State Legislature passed a law in 2011 establishing land banks — nonprofit organizations that can acquire vacant, abandoned, or foreclosed properties and rebuild, demolish, or redesign them. By restoring vacant or abandoned properties, land banks lower costs for local governments, benefit public schools, reduce crime and boost local economies.
However, the legislation that authorized land banks in New York did not provide funding for them. Attorney General Schneiderman launched the Land Bank Community Revitalization Initiative to fill that gap and allow land banks to fulfill their purpose. He has dedicated $33 million to fund that initiative. Last month, the Attorney General’s bill to expand the number of land banks from 10 to 20 was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor.
The amounts awarded today are as follows: the Rochester Land Bank (over $1.8 million); Greater Syracuse Land Bank (over $1.9 million); the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Bank Investment Corporation ($2.5 million); Newburgh Community Land Bank (1.9 million); Suffolk County Land Bank ($1.9 million); Chautauqua County Land Bank ($1.3 million); Capital Region Land Bank ($3 million); Albany County Bank ($2.8 million); Troy Community Land Bank ($1.25 million), and the Broome County Land Bank ($800,000).
So far, the program has achieved great success in the six land banks that have already been funded.
Abandoned and vacant properties depress property values, discourage property ownership, and attract criminal activity, but land banks provide tools to quickly turn these properties back into assets that reinvest in the community's long-term vision for its neighborhood. Land bank programs act as an economic and community development tool to revitalize distressed neighborhoods and business districts. Land banks can benefit urban schools, improve tax revenues, expand housing opportunities, remove public nuisances, assist in crime prevention and promote economic development.
By transferring vacant and abandoned properties to responsible land owners, local governments benefit because they avoid the significant cost burden of property maintenance, such as mowing and snow removal. In addition, local governments benefit from increased revenue because the new owners pay taxes on the properties. In turn, local schools benefit because they receive more funding when there is an increase in the number of property owners in their school districts. Land bank programs can also increase the variety of mixed-income housing offered and provide more opportunities for affordable housing.
Land bank properties that become owner-occupied discourage criminal activity, benefiting public safety and decreasing the cost burden on local police and fire departments. Finally, the more residents and businesses that occupy property in a neighborhood, the more services and amenities will be needed, which boosts local economic activity.
The Attorney General’s office has partnered with Enterprise Community Partners to assist with the oversight and management of the Land Bank Community Revitalization Initiative. Enterprise is a nonprofit organization with more than 30 years of experience providing technical assistance and support to affordable community revitalization efforts.