One of Ten in Masten Park

"That being said, I learned the other day the budget was approximately $350,000 per home. Again, it's difficult for me to understand how this is a sensible expenditure, particularly in a neighborhood where housing values average $35-$40,000."

My thoughts exactly. I bet a private developer could do 10 houses for 500k or even lower.

Id say that the 2 neighborhoods that I expect to be up and coming.

The OXFORD neighborhood sandwiched between Main and Linwood by Millard Fillmore Gates. There are incredibly beautiful houses in that area but it has languished for decades.

MASTEN DISTRICT is all but assured. Its within walking distance to the fastest growing employment center in Western NY and in Buffalo (Life Sciences Campus).

I would expect, as the Life Sciences Campus grows, the HUMBOLDT PARK DISTRICT will follow. Of course, ending the Kensington at Jefferson/Best and making Jefferson/Best with a parkway entrance/exit to downtown rather than having Elm, Oak and Goodell as the entrance to the Life Sciences Campus would allow this to happen faster.

GRANT would be in far better condition and its future far brighter if not for the rejection by Buffalo State by current and prior leadership such as Muriel Howard.

350 grand on those houses is absolutely ludicrous. I'm sure they'll be gorgeous, but even when they're done they can't possibly be worth more than 100k, and for that neighborhood that's a stretch. And everyone wonders why New York/the federal government is broke.

And even still, I'd love to know what exactly it is they're doing for 350k. I'm an electrician, and am around a lot of rehabs. Even on the bigger projects where the entire place is gutted to stud, new roof, electrical and plumbing, etc. the total contract isn't even half that generally.

whyyyyyyyyy vinyl siding... it makes my heart hurt when I see it. It takes so much away from any house.

Can anyone shed more light on where all the money goes? $350k per house does seem pretty astronomical. I know there might be expenses for lead and asbestos abatement, but still...

Even if you use vinyl, you can put trim around the windows. And it's not that expensive.

I find it interesting that people would consider where the money goes and how it is used. PUSH has done 2 buildings thus far and have you looked at their 990"s? They spend well over $350,000 a house and have had to learn as they go about construction. Many of these projects are wonderful but they are in no way "sustainable"projects as their mission statement declares, or a process that can be easily "replicated" or one that employs "poor people" to do the work.
I give kudos to to Homefront, they've renovated 4 houses in the time it took PUSH to evaluate a structure. The men who work for Lamparelli are not "from the hood" and it's a running joke that many of the men (no women contractors) can retire after the PUSH projects because they are so lucrative.
I think because PUSH is the liberal wet dream, nobody challenges their management of funds as they continue to learn how to manage a construction project.

$350,000. each?
Hell, just level it and build a suburban drywall box. What a joke.

Simple: follow the money.

I hear Burke's workers are removing architectural elements (glass, etc) from these homes.

Having said all this, I am glad to see the houses restored rather than demo'd.

I came to Buffalo to work on a demonstration project showing that houses could be rehabbed for a much lower cost than these state/federally funded projects. For that single-house project, I worked on some of the interior finish. In the end, it was sold to a first-time homebuyer who is an asset to the neighborhood, for the cost of purchasing the house from the demolition list, materials, and carrying costs getting the house to the sale point. The new owner has continued to make upgrades. Sale price? About what someone might pay for a decent new car. A great starter house at a great starter price.

Some of the methods and arrangements used could be scaled up or used in other situations, but not all. But the point is that the "funded" model, which inevitably costs 6-figures per house rehab, needs to be replaced with a much more sustainable model. In a city which still needs much of its housing stock substantially upgraded, yet whose home values generally don't justify six-figure expenditures, the job simply can't get done using that model.

What I find most disheartening about this, is that this has long been a known issue in housing and community development circles in Upstate NY, where organizations & governments have to use these statewide programs developed in a "one size fits all" manner designed more for Downstate needs & home values. Despite that, we still haven't developed an effective new model for Upstate cities. What are people waiting for?!

The closest we come in Buffalo to a more sustainable model is the work of organizations such as Habitat for Humanity (whose Buffalo chapter has the distinction of doing more rehabs than new builds) and West Side Ministries. Also, the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative has recently gotten recognition for development of a "braided" model for combining multiple funding sources for home improvements related to energy efficiency and lead-hazard abatement. What we need is a model that blends the best of all these ideas, with perhaps some new ones. We need to prove it, then scale it up, and we need to do it very soon. The way we're going now, with projects like this, we're wasting too much time, money, and rehabbable housing stock. AND we're not creating the jobs, building the skillsets, and reducing unemployement that we could do with a larger-scale, sustainably funded approach.

Good for the builders. They are milking it for all it's worth probably to the tune of 250 thousand or more per home and using shoddy products to boot. Seriously, such a waste of money. What idiot oversees these projects? So much more can/should be done with 3 million.
Being a low income project you can bet they will look like crap within 5 years, add no value to the neighborhood or show any sort of return at any time at all.
If the medical corridor was to transform this neck of the woods that boom would of started ages ago. Get your head out of the sand.

Prevailing wage rates anyone?

Burke is another name for Rocco, something stinks here

Wow-once again armchair developers who don't do this for a living complain...never ceases to amaze me on here. Well even for-profit developers can't avoid Davis Bacon rates (which jumped big time last month jeopardizing lots of projects) if its HUD, certain tax credit, LIHTC, NSP, HOME or other type of builder programs. Most of these only work layering several programs. Credible developers must renovate using architects, engineers, provide ESAs, title clearing, etc to meet lending requirements. Legal fees, appraisals, green features (Ev3, Enterprise, Leed, etc) etc. add on top of this. This is not a single owner-occupied renovation. Preservation doesn't always make sense- you're right! I'd opt to build new ones but people here would have complained if torn down as well. Welcome to Buffalo where everyone has the right answer you must follow and it will always be opposite the one you choose!

"Prevailing wage rates anyone?"

Likely spot on. Construction projects funded by the government are way too costly and fiscally insane due to prevailing wage. It unnecessarily drives up all cosst for government work. Last I checked the prevailing rate for a general laborer was in the mid- to upper $40/hr range (without benefits, meaning they just get the flat salary). However, that same laborer is likely getting no fringe benefits on a non-prevailing wage job and making a salary in the mid-teens.

How is it that the private sector can pay half the price for the same labor the government pays twice for?

Good story today in the BN about a Clarence Soccer group that has determined that its cheaper to get a private loan at a higher interest rate than let the Town bond the money simply because the saving would be overrun by the govt requirement to use prevailing wage.

I'm all for a living, decent wage. But prevailing wage artifically drives the prices up and when the govt pays more than the free market does, something is wrong.

Belmont Shelter doesn't exist anymore. They changed their name to Belmont Housing Resources for WNY about three years ago.

Prevailing wage rates aren't the whole story here. Part of the problem is the fact that much unnecessary work is mandated (and paid for) under these funding programs, and they don't reflect community values and character. A common complaint I've heard about these projects, going back years, is that they essentially strip a house and turn it into a new house (consistent with the comments here). That's not what we need. We need to make houses habitable, safe, and energy efficient.

We also need to reflect community values -- removing the architectural character of our neighborhoods doesn't do that. Using vinyl siding doesn't do that. I once had the privilege of talking with Lois Gibbs, and asked what her next environmental campaign would be. She told me she was looking at going after vinyl, which she described as a substance having one of the worst environmental impacts over its life cycle that humanity has created. Refurbishing existing windows, where possible, also reflects community values. Also, using deconstruction & salvage for elements that do need to be removed.

Perhaps most importantly, the communities where these projects are being done are full of other houses which dearly need work, and also full of people who also dearly need work -- and a marketable trade. These state/federally funded projects upstate should include a component for apprenticeship for community members. These apprentices, while also learning more advanced skills, could also tackle work which might not make economic sense to do at prevailing wage rates: properly removing lead paint from & refurbishing existing siding (so it's not just wholesale torn off & sent to the landfill), refurbishing existing wood flooring (where possible), deconstruction & salvage, etc.

The other thing that needs to change: there needs to be real community notification about these projects, so that people in the community can have real input. Instead of just finding out about them when they're already underway.

When I worked some small scale government procurement projects we found the general rule was it cots 3 times for the government to purchase something readily available in the public sector. This was driven by the massive bureaucracy of purchasing, as we'll as purchasing rules (minority, women or veteran owned), made in America clauses, meeting government standards on things that are realistically trivial. We would end up with a chair that cost $350 and the same chair would be $125 at Wal-Mart. I would think the buildings run into the same issues, just the lead paint seems like it would require them to ripe everything out and hazmat it. That alone must cost 50k. If they could just grant money directly to people, and give them a waiver on some of the local labor laws you could get 3 times as many homes done, and likely have an owner who was deeply invested with sweet equity.