Note especially in her piece: "There are more than a dozen pieces of legislation scheduled to be voted on at the Tuesday [7/17] council meeting that are designed to revitalize residential properties—including mortgage default assistance, lead abatement and funding for the purchase, rehabilitation and sale of homes to income-eligible households."
This legislation sounds promising—additional details will be posted as they become available.
(July 16, 2007) — In a Speaking Out essay ("Do not leave city's neediest area out of the redevelopment loop," July 5) Hilda Rosario-Escher, president and CEO, Ibero-American Action League, and Eugenio Marlin, president and CEO, Ibero-American Development Corp., expressed concerns about a portion of Rochester's housing market study and its impact on northeast Rochester.
I'd like to assure them and the entire community that no street, block or neighborhood will be abandoned in Rochester.
While the housing study does express some concern about the market for new housing construction in specific portions of the city, the study is a work in progress and is being reviewed by City Council.
As the study moves toward completion, City Council will seek substantial public input before making housing policy decisions.
We then will work with Mayor Robert Duffy and his administration to use the study as the basis for developing a new housing policy for Rochester.
Part of the council's review will include the recognition that a "one-size-fits-all" housing strategy cannot work across the entire city. Instead, we must use the specific tools that will work best in a given locale. To do that, we continue to support programs to provide safe, affordable housing all over the city. For example, a diverse range of market-rate housing must be developed to attract middle-class residents back to the city. The city must also work very hard to help our poorer residents find safe, affordable housing options and stabilize neighborhoods.
We're doing these things right now. There are more than a dozen pieces of legislation scheduled to be voted on at the Tuesday council meeting that are designed to revitalize residential properties — including mortgage default assistance, lead abatement and funding for the purchase, rehabilitation and sale of homes to income-eligible households.
One legislative item on our agenda will greatly assist in the substantial renovation of Norton Village and Fernwood Park in the northeast, and Ramona Park in the northwest, ensuring the retention of more than 500 units of affordable housing for the next 40 years.
On many streets in northeast Rochester, as on local streets throughout our community, new construction and substantial building rehabilitation make sense. The definition of what makes sense is dictated by the realities of the real estate market; in other words, decisions about development are made based on what homebuyers will pay for a particular property on a particular street.
Unfortunately, our work is complicated by the declining amount of federal funding to cities. Some of the most creative housing programs in Rochester during the past decades were funded by the Community Development Block Grant. But that important revenue has shrunk substantially, leaving less available to help lower-income homeowners maintain their homes.
That reduction ultimately can lead to a cycle of neglect and abandonment. For example, if repairs are not made to a leaky roof, damage is done to the house, and the cost of fixing that damage has to be added to the original roof repair. Soon, the cost of needed repairs is close to the house's total value. These are the buildings that often must be demolished; our hope is that these new empty lots are used as home lots in the future.
However, marketplace realities govern the redevelopment of houses as well. If the going home price on a particular street is $50,000 and a new house costs $120,000 to build, someone (the government or a private foundation) has to cover that $70,000 gap or the house has to be built on a street with a higher market value.
These are the dilemmas the city must face in crafting our housing policy. We will meet them head-on and will craft a series of solutions that will allow us to address the multiple needs of our myriad neighborhoods.
And we will do it by being sensitive to the different needs of different neighborhoods, street by street, block by block, in partnership with city residents.
Santiago is vice president and at-large member, Rochester City Council.
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