Rochester releases housing study recommendations

On Thursday (July 26), the anticipated “recommendations” section of the Rochester Housing Market Study was released to the public. It can be read [here], in PDF form.

Regarding the recommendations, Mayor Duffy said:

“The next stage of policy-making will involve taking the Study to residents through public meetings in each quadrant of the city, meetings with neighborhood leaders and other community stakeholders, and working closely with City Council. The recommendations and public feedback will be used to form our new policy. It’s important that we offer everyone a seat at the table as we continue to shape our City’s housing policy.”

Some highlights from the section (4) dealing with abandoned properties--and some related items from other sections--are below:

4.1 Use data-driven analysis to develop a toolkit of interventions.

• Track foreclosure data.
• Improve tracking and analysis of Tax Foreclosed properties.
• Track property flipping to identify patterns of disinvestment and equity stripping.
• Evaluate current infill new construction programs and consider fewer projects of more scale.

4.2 Create a vacant property task force.

“Rochester has talented advocates and intermediaries who have studied and worked on the problems and are familiar with best practices in other cities. Many good ideas and efforts have been directed toward the problem.”

4.3 Support and Expand Education and Advocacy around distressed and vacant property issues and predatory lending.

• Expand and fund homeowner, homebuyer and landlord education placing emphasis on predatory lending.
• Support additional foreclosure counseling programs.
• Work with banks and other entities who own foreclosed properties to develop comprehensive strategies.

4.4 Utilize owner-repair programs.

“The Rehab Rochester program, when operational, was oversubscribed. Because of the limited amount of resources available to fund owner-repair programs, the City should consider various programmatic changes to maximize funding. Examples could include zero-interest loans to higher income-qualified homeowners, restricting the type of rehabilitation work that can be funded, and requiring a match percentage by homeowners to receive the funding. A stable, easy to access source of non-predatory loan capital, combined with technical assistance in scoping rehab work, will help owners, both homeowners and investors, be responsible property stewards.”

4.5 Review Code Enforcement Procedures and Data for Impact on Distressed Property.

4.6 Strategically demolish obsolete properties.

“It will be important to have consensus with neighbors as to the type of property demolished and the future uses of the land. Demolition plans should be integrated with neighborhood planning efforts and land banking efforts. Properly managed open space, as suggested in Issue 8, can improve the quality of life in the denser neighborhoods.”

4.7 Land bank strategic City-owned parcels.

4.8 Create incentives to encourage buyers to choose City neighborhoods.

4.9 Offer tax abatement on improvements.

4.10 Re-design and more aggressively market employee assisted housing loans.

7.2 Create a Neighborhood Planning Challenge Fund.

“The fund would provide grants for neighborhood planning but also subsequent dollars for implementation after the plan is complete. The Wachovia Regional Foundation in Philadelphia, for instance, provides $100,000 neighborhood planning grants and implementation grants up to $750,000.”

8.2 Actively use open space as a community revitalization tool.

• Create a Rochester cleaning and greening organization.

“Detroit, Flint, Cleveland, Youngstown and Buffalo are all exploring, or already implementing, initiatives to simultaneously land bank and green vacant land. The most established example is through the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Green Program, which manages, cleans and greens vacant land in focused areas throughout the City. The experience of Philadelphia Green is instructive. They provide technical assistance and funding to community organizations to maintain vacant land.”

• Create an open space strategy for depreciated and distressed areas.

“In some communities, the City should plan for shrinkage. A key component of this task is to plan for a greater emphasis on open space. An open space strategy should identify where existing parks should be improved, where to focus street improvement dollars and where new open spaces could be created from vacant land.”

The full recommendations portion of the Housing Market Study can now be viewed at:

http://www.rochesterhousingstudy.com/reports/pdf/housingmarketstudyrecommendations.pdf