Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The City of Buffalo and Erie County have partnered on Wednesday in an announcement that will see a combined $23.5 million go towards turning vacant lots across the city and region into affordable housing.
"The money coming from the city and the county will be used to help transform city-owned vacant lots into affordable housing, and this will give us the ability to do substantial affordable housing in the City of Buffalo, but also in the County of Erie," said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown during Thursday's press conference.
As part of the committed $23.5 million to the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement Corporation (BENLIC), the City of Buffalo is allocating $10 million from the City's American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding, while Erie County is allocating $13.5 million.
"This is an example of how coming together, we're working to address a need in our community, and we're not the only community that faces it. The entire United States right now faces [an] affordable housing crisis," said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz during Thursday's announcement. "We, like the city, are using American Rescue Plan dollars to invest this $13.5 million into this affordable housing fund, which will then allow for the construction of these houses.
"This is a way in which we can invest the American Rescue Plan dollars in our community and create better communities for all. This is what it's all about."
At this time, the plan is to invest in, at least, 60 new homes in vacant lots across Buffalo and other areas of Erie County. The goal is to shoot for 100 new houses with this funding, but it's going to depend on the bids that come back from BENLIC, with regards to the costs associated with the construction of these homes.
"I think we've all kind of heard about empty lots throughout our districts and what they do, how detrimental they are to streets throughout our community. I've heard the comparison time-and-time again to a smile missing teeth, so projects like this do an incredible job in filling in those gaps and contributing to the all-around quality of life of our community and our neighborhoods," said Buffalo Common Councilman Chris Scanlon on Thursday. "But more than that, what they're going to do for these residents who wind up in these homes is going to be life-changing, not just creating housing, affordable housing for these people, but putting this asset in their hands for them and for their families for generations to come. It's going to change their lives, and the lives of future generations.
"The beautiful thing about this is it's going to hit every district across the City of Buffalo. This is a historic investment in our community for affordable housing."
While Executive Director of BENLIC, Jocelyn Gordon, knows the APR funding is going to help a number of different causes for what the money is intended for, she says the one thing that is needed in the area is new housing, and new housing for working families.
"Everybody is sort of fighting in the same pool, trying to buy the same moderately-priced home. There are vacant lots all over the city, and our land bank, that's all we do is work with vacant lots and vacant structures. We don't have training wheels on at this point," said Gordon on Thursday. "For the last nine years, we have been working to do full rehabs, new construction, and getting vacant houses and vacant lots back into productive use through selling to places like Habitat for Humanity. We've been doing it for nine years, and we've done almost 200 homes since 2015, so we're ready. This is 60 more, and we'll just have to just work a little faster. We've got four construction seasons to do it, and the timer starts now. So let's build some houses."
The city's Office of Strategic Planning says, based on what they've seen, the $23.5 million could be the largest ARP allocation for affordable infill urban housing in the nation.
BENLIC will use the funds from this announcement to transform city lots and county lots, not privately-owned lots.
The $13.5 million from Erie County is the first phase of funds that will be geared towards affordable housing in the region. Later this fall, Poloncarz says the county will roll out Phase 2 of the $20 million for affordable housing that he laid out as part of his State of the County address. The remainder of the $20 million will be announced to assist other affordable housing projects countywide.
"We're still putting together the pieces to that, but we think it's important that we move this project together," Poloncarz explained. "Our goal is to move it such that people are starting to see these projects move forward in the next 6-to-9 months."
