Washington, DC – January 14, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced that Community Builders in Albany has been awarded $5,521,006 through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Community Builders will use the funding to initiate a multifamily stabilization program that will rehabilitate vacant and troubled homes in the Cohoes area. Senator Schumer was an early supporter of this project and wrote a letter of support for Community Builders last July.
“Vacant housing chokes rejuvenation, invites crime, drags down property values in both the city and the suburbs, and puts a drain on our local resources,” said Schumer. “These funds will not only help rehabilitate dilapidated and vacant homes in Cohoes, but they will also build a foundation for economic growth in the Capital Region.”
Community Builders is a coalition dedicated to building strong and stable communities in localities that have been hit hardest by the housing foreclosure crisis. In favoring a multi-disciplinary approach, coordinating access to support services, and by implementing other community and economic initiatives, Community Builders is able to develop, finance, and operate affordable, mixed-income housing.
The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) allows States and local governments to use the funding to acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties that might otherwise become sources of abandonment and blight. NSP grantees can use the stabilization grants to buy foreclosed homes, purchase land and property, demolish or rehabilitate abandoned properties, offer down payment and closing cost assistance to low to moderate income homebuyers, or to create “land banks” to assemble, temporarily manage, and dispose of vacant land to encourage re-use or redevelopment of property. Grantees are obligated to use the funds within 18 months of notification.
With funding, the Community Builders will be able to initiate a multifamily stabilization program in the City of Cohoes in Upstate New York. This program will rehabilitate troubled single and multifamily inventories, vacant properties, and Section 8 housing through physical improvements, energy efficiency advancements, and environmental remediation.
HUD will help the communities implement their neighborhood stabilization programs. Implementing these programs may benefit from an area-wide or even regional approach. It may also require state and local planners to put their collective heads together to ramp up these programs.
