Construction Watch: Home Ownership Zone
Belmont Shelter’s New Opportunities Community Housing Development Corp. is building 28 new homes in the near East Side’s Home Ownership Zone. Funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and subsidies secured through HSBC Bank from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York's Affordable Housing Program, the properties are being developed by a partnership teaming non-profit New Opportunities and the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.
Unlike previous scattered-site infill projects, the City has been concentrating the new builds on select blocks. Work on thirteen homes was recently completed on Hickory Street between William and Broadway. Three home designs are available, each with four bedrooms, one and a half-baths, and 1,492 to 1,725 sq.ft. of living space. Most homes are located on forty foot lots, have usable front porches, and are built closer to the street with a bit more architectural detailing than previous infill housing developments.
Work continues on fifteen additional homes on Myrtle Avenue between Cedar and Spring streets (photo below). The homes join 23 other new-builds that have been built on the targeted Seneca/Myrtle/Swan block in recent years. The surrounding neighborhood has seen hundreds of new single-family and townhome residences built, mostly subsidized.
Buyer income must be at or below 80 percent of the area median to be eligible for one of the subsidized homes which have been selling in the $95,000 to $105,000 range (table below). New York State Empire Zone tax benefits relieve nearly all property taxes for up to eight years, increasing the homes' affordability for low- to moderate-income buyers.
Get connected: Belmont Shelter, 716.884.2358
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al-alo
whew! glad to see we now have some unfordable housing on the east side. potential home owners might have had to pay 1/5 of these prices to get a place.
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Sal
A heavily subsidized house was built at 39 Davis, Buffalo, NY 14204 in 2000 similar to these. It was sold for $86,500. At the city tax auction this past year, it was foreclosed on for $28,000 and re-sold for $60,770. Tell me why these subsidies are good for someone other than the developers and subsequent flippers.
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Emjay
This is completely off topic, but did anyone notice that the FJF condo site on Lafayette is now for sale with carraige house for $350,000? WCP, any news on this? I'm guessing that this particular infill project is now off. If you find anything out, I wonder what this infers about their other EV projects?
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WCPerspective
Emjay- coming soon.
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Buffalo21stcentury
heavily subsidized housing is wrong on so many levels, especially in Buffalo, where homes are being flipped, neglected and demolished. For a fraction of the price to build new, an existing home could be gutted with new plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roof and windows.
Not only is the emphasis wrong...BUT NOTICE THAT THESE HOMES ARE BEING BUILT WHERE ENTIRE CITY BLOCKS HAVE BEEN DEMOLISHED. THEY ARE NOT INFILL TO PRESERVE AN EXISTING ENDANGERED NEIGHBORHOOD OR COMMUNITY AND THAT IS THE BIGGEST TRAGEDY OF ALL.
If we had to have subsidized housing then it should be on city blocks that still have a fraction of their existing homes.
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Dangelo23
For once, I actually like the new houses, well THESE ones. They don't look so out of place. Good Job!
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Dakovich
I'm still on the fence with all of this new-built subsidized housing. I can see the vision, don't get me wrong, but in practice I don't think it works real well. To me it seems that instead of having old homes that went into disrepair we now have new-built homes that will fall into disrepair. Drive through some of these new-built-subby-hoods and you can see that people don't seem to take care of their places. Maybe, especially in these new cases, the cost of the home, even with subsidizing, won't leave people who qualify much dispensible income to take care of the new home. We've all seen the shoddy craftsmanship these new homes seem to be built with, and who among those who qualify could afford the expenses of fixing the major concerns they'll face 5-10-15 years down the road. It reminds me of the mortgage cirsis of putting people in homes they can't afford.
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Biniszkiewicz
I don't like the idea of subsidies in general and subsidies for housing which restrict purchasers to low income guidelines I find more objectionable. BUT I would defend the neighborhoods created with these subsidies from the criticism often leveled at them (namely that the houses invariably lose value and feature shoddy workmanship). Look no further than Carey Street to see a neighborhood constructed this way which today is more desirable and expensive than when first created in the '80s. The near East Side (specifically the area bounded by the 33, Michigan, Clinton and Jefferson) is a generally good looking neighborhood where homes appear to be well maintained. In my mind there is little question but that downtown is in better shape today in part because of this neighborhood's role as the buffer to urban decay. Imagine for a few moments the difficulty in promoting downtown if the new housing near it were not there and instead the old decrepit neighborhood still rotted. These homes, constructed over the past 25 years, have achieved a density which appears (at least from the outside) to be self-sustaining.
Philosophically speaking, I would be more comfortable with home subsidies if the money went only into site preparation/remediation/infrastructure; the developed products would then be market rate homes available to anyone, whether or not they qualify as 'low' income. We'd end up with greater income and racial diversity in these new neighborhoods, as well as more examples of higher quality construction. Homogeneity should not be our goal; greater range in the end product appealing to more diverse groups of buyers could go a long way toward creating vibrant neighborhoods we all seek.
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blackrocklifer
I have no problem with subsidies for lower income home buyers. We have been subsidizing high income home buyers for years with the mortgage interest deduction. This is the single largest transfer of wealth in America and it benefits only those with large mortgages and also encourages sprawl.
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pegger
Anyone remember the scandalous William Prince Parkway subsidized development that bears big fruits then, now, and in the future? Glad to see that these East Side micro communities will be sold to deserving families.
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