Housing project makes old homes new again

By Amanda O’Leary and Sametra Polkah-Toe

Bengal News reporters

 Across the West Side are many old homes that once gave families shelter. Now those same homes wait for the day when the city comes to knock them down. Some of those buildings  are getting a second chance to house families once again.

 As part of a $3 million project, PUSH Buffalo and HomeFront Inc. are taking broken down homes and giving them a face-lift by providing them with new roofs, landscaping and complete exterior rehabilitation making them more energy efficient and, at the same time, making them more safe to live in.
 One of the houses at 10 Winter St. is becoming more energy efficient by making its own energy through geothermal heat, and solar power for electric and solar thermal power for the hot water.  The houses at 398, 397 and 460 Massachusetts Ave. are also being made energy efficient but also more affordable.
 PUSH’s goal is simple: it wants to make bright neighborhoods to help bring in employment    opportunities for Buffalo. To create strong neighborhoods, people need good and affordable housing.
 On 19th Street there is a home that is not just getting a complete rehabilitation, but also a structural repair.

A HomeFront spokesman talks about progress on 19th Street:


 Before anything can be done,  PUSH and its partners need funding.
Stimulus funds from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program are being used to purchase and stabilize vacant houses. They also received New York State funding to perform major upgrades on three structures as part of the Massachusetts Avenue Development Plan.  Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, New York State Housing and Community Renewal have played a role in this project.
 How did PUSH choose what houses to work on?
 Many of these homes were once abandoned by the State Bonding Agency after it was learned that the houses’ liens were greater than the value of the homes.
 “Our advocacy forced the State to give the ownership rights to the houses back to the City of Buffalo,” PUSH member Sean Ryan said.
 Ryan gives examples why the area by Massachusetts Avenue and 19th Street is the main focus of their work instead of renewing homes around the whole city.
 “This zone, as it builds off the strength of Richmond Avenue and its attempt to take scarce housing rehab dollars,” Ryan said. “To concentrate them in a single area is an attempt to bring back a neighborhood and not scatter the funds around which could lead to a dilution of the funds.”
 Richmond Avenue recently underwent a renaissance and the goal is to move that renaissance to the nearby neighborhoods.  
PUSH isn’t doing this project by itself.
 It partners up with groups like Habitat for Humanity; they are putting on a new roof at 60 Lawrence Place.
 It biggest partnership however, is with HomeFront Inc.
 “Everything is made so much easier because we have a capable partner in PUSH,” Program Director Jean Berry said. “They, like us, have a vested interest in the betterment of the community, which shows through all their hard work.”
While PUSH receives the homes for the project, HomeFront’s job is to turn those fresh newly rebuilt homes into just that, homes. They place families into these homes.
 Like PUSH, HomeFront believes to help the local economy you need to make the area around a business more desirable to help make the businesses successful.
 “You can build a Taj Mahal anywhere, but if people don’t want to locate in that particular area, they aren’t going to buy it,” Bryan Cacciotti, executive director at HomeFront, said.
 Not just anyone can move into these homes. Before offering someone the opportunity to purchase one of their homes, there is a comprehensive counseling and education process.
 If all goes well, what once were deserted family homes could once again be opened up to families.
 “This is going to be one of the most successful housing development projects because we’re using a neighborhood approach rather than just doing one rehab here and another on a different street,” Cacciotti said. “By doing this, we aren’t just beautifying our communities but sustaining them as well.”

Edited by Kevin Hoffman and Craig Learn