19th Street Rehabs

This is what a rehab is supposed to be. Good work, we need about 2000 more! Six houses on one street is enough to turn around an entire neighborhood, or at least get the ball rolling. I think flipping houses should be welcomed barring they are done in this manner. It turns a profit for the investor while changing neighborhoods and allowing people to buy an affordable home that is practically new, while maintaining the amazing character of our architecture.

Honest "flipping" that put people in homeownership and improved existing housing stock in the city would be a welcome idea. Essentially, HomeFront is doing this but with subsidies to keep prices affordable, which is fine. If the City really wanted to have homes rehabbed, they'd offer them for sale on a continual basis, not once a year at an in rem auction. Why not develop a housing program that provided the subsidy in the form of the free vacant home or lot to a builder/rehabber in exchange for an agreement to rehab or build to a certain standard and sale price? Essentially, instead of spending $20,000 on a demo, the city gives the property (granted they have to be rehab-able) away (no cost to them) and it gets rehabbed.

There has to be a better way to do what seems painfully obvious.

The one house with the top and bottom porch looks good but the front attic has a gable vent. A window similar to what was there would look a thousand times better, the vent gives this building a cheap look compared to the houses on each side. If this is still unheated attic space, then cheap single hung units would do the trick - just a suggestion.

I luv seeing BLOCKS of houses being rehabbed at once. Now if only we can do some in the East Side too instead of knocking them all down.

And I also luv the fact that these will be Single Family homes. It's a no brainer that since the city is losing in population and losing great old homes. The best way to save them is turn these doubles and mixed apartments into Single homes. Renovating them and having ownership instead of rental brings the property values up and more pride in the community while having a more guarentee that these homes will be filled since they are not doubles. On the other hand, if and when our area does re-gain in population, we have almost an entire EAST Side that has miles and miles of empty land to re-build new living spaces.

Nice to see but demolition is inevtiable with a city population half of what it was and a metro population also bleeding population. Without growth trends in employment and opportunity who will fill all these homes? It is simply reshuffling the deck with less and less residents. The residents are like the chairs in musical chairs and somebody has to go in the the housing stock when a chair is taken away. These vacancy issues arent lasting afew months, its been decades of this and I just cant see how the east side with all its issues could be somehow saved by rebuilding homes there unless population decline, employment, income, crime, are all resolved first. Otherwise what are we doing? Just rebuilding neighborhoods that were destroyed in part by some of those who live in them?

This is one of too few "neighborhood-based" rehabs that "builds from strength" of nearby Richmond Ave.

Sadly, WSNHS (WS Neigh Housing Service) has not been mentioned in this positive initiative, nor in the exciting "Extreme Makeover" on Mass Ave last month. WSNHS was founded in 1980 to 'stop WS decline'& 'promote homeownership' but with a staff of 7+ & an administrative budget of about $730K has too often been part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

Producing an average of less than two "scattershot" acquisition-rehabs a year over the past decade, they have rarely made any visible inpact on neighborhoods where they have purchased houses.

For example, WSNHS purchased 116 19th St on 6/22/05, selling it for $55K on 3/29/07 to a new homeowner surrounded by blight. Indeed, right next door at #114 was one of the most notorious flip-scams in Bflo. It was first owned by notorious Houston scammer Scott Wizig, then dumped to notorious California JD MAX, finally going to Homefront after two more flips.

Without major reform, WSNHS will continue to be part of the problems on the WS, dragging down the exciting efforts of PUSH & Homefront who have been forced to move into the vacuum created by a longtime disfunctional, but 'connected' WSNHS.

I REALLY hope that some of the woodwork will be reincorporated into the structures. If not that is a really shame. New layout or not drywall and ticky-tacky finishes from depot don't do it for me. It is amazing how hard it is to find an affordable houses with really good woodwork nowadays.

..."while maintaining the amazing character of our architecture" ... Is that what they're doing? The photos show conversion to featureless boxes using off-the-shelf items, whether they fit or not. I realize that the intention is to provide affordable housing for first-time buyers and that these places would otherwise be demolished, but let's not pretend that any preservation is involved.

Rehabs are croping up all over the West Side. Just the other day I walked by a funny looking house @ 388 Breckenridge (corner of Hoyt) and saw that it was undergoing a major renovation. If someone could see value in this charred, ravaged house situated on a lot narrower than most driveways, than perhaps the neighborhood really is coming around.


http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Someone or some company has done a fantastic job rehabbing quite a few houses on the last block (the 400 block) of Parkdale near Forest too. I am on the next block and I met a the new owner who bought the only boarded up house on my block in the most recent foreclosure sale. He told me he intends to update/remodel it and sell it too!! He already brought over a contractor to look at some of the work that needs to be done. This is great. I hope it keeps growing. These houses on the Lower West Side are so individual and have neat unusual architectural features. As many of them as possible should be saved.

BUFFALO RISING: OMG! Is BR intending to tolerate becoming a gossip site, especially against people who might not know of BR's existance? Does BR understand how a number inversion is also a privacy invasion???!!!