JAMESTOWN, NY (WKBW) — The City of Jamestown launched a new program designed to revive vacant homes with plans to resell them to new owners.
Jamestown leaders say they believe this could be a partial solution to a housing crisis.
7 News Senior Reporter Eileen Buckley spent Thursday in Jamestown to learn more about the program and find out what residents are saying.
“We’ve had police called to remove squatters out of there some of them were drug-related, and lots of homeless people come by and they'll check out the house and they see the broken window on the side and say ‘okay, we can go up in there’”, described Julie Roberts, Jamestown resident.
Roberts lives across the street from a vacant home on Howard Street in the city of Jamestown and tells me she's tired of the house bringing down what she calls a "great neighborhood".
“Our neighborhood — we're all good friends with each other. We watch out for one another and it's a peaceful street — very peaceful,” declared Roberts.
But now the vacant Howard Street home is one nine currently under a ‘Rehab—Resale and Revive’ effort. The City of Jamestown is taking advantage of the state's new real property law called 19-A Housing Rehabilitation Program.
The law allows the city to take over homes vacant for more than one year, owe back taxes, or have code enforcement issues.
The city cleans up the exterior and interior and fixes any code violations to prepare them for resale.
“We want to attract individuals or families that can buy a home and we're working with community agencies to help provide low to no-interest loans to purchase those homes at fair market value,” remarked Eddie Sundquist, Jamestown Mayor.
Mayor Sundquist told me the goal is to stabilize these neighborhoods and stop vacant homes from causing blight. He met me outside another vacant home on Barker Street.
“The property you are looking at right now had a lot of junk and debris in front of it — a lot of different bushes. It's all been cleaned up currently that's phase one — phase two we start to do an interior cleanup,” explained Sundquist. “Many of these homes are in really incredible neighborhoods. They just need a bit little love and care. They need coats of paint.”
“So, we're looking at a way to save the structure if it can be saved, bring it back to life in the neighborhood, and also put it back on the tax rolls to be a productive property again,” noted Marie Carrubba, Housing Chair, Jamestown City Council.
Councilwoman Carrubba says it’s better to resell vacant homes instead of tearing them down.
“It’s nice to see first-time home buyers have an opportunity to take a home and rehab it and live in the community,” Carrubba replied.
“There's a lot of houses that have been condemned and have caught on fire because people go in there that have nowhere else to go,” reflected Roberts.
She was unaware of the new program until we arrived in her neighborhood.
“It will be great as long as long as they get some decent people in there, preferably no one that does drugs. But it would be great if some family or somebody could buy it and fix it up,” responded Roberts. “If we can preserve it — that's the best."
Future buyers must promise to live in the home for at least five years under this rehab program.
The mayor tells me this first round of nine homes that they're working on should be ready in a few months for potential buyers.
