Looking for East Side residents interested in helping each other
How about looking to "ex-pats" like me to invest in the East Side? For love, not money--really! I'd love to buy our old family homestead near Broadway-Bailey; I have the credit to buy & rehab the place. If I put $40K into it, could I resell it at that price to an owner-occupant if I were to hold the mortgage for 20 years at 7%?
The realtors tell me I'm crazy to consider this, that NO ONE wants to get involved here. I just don't want "my place" to go downhill; it's HUD-owned & needs everything but is structurally sound. Would love to find East Side residents interested in helping each other rehab homes on the order of Habitat for Humanity. Any grants/interested people out there? -Sheryl Anderson
The map shows the St. John Kanty neighborhood; a neighborhood that is practically off the map when it comes to awareness of Buffalo neighborhoods. It;s been years since I've been down there. How is that area doing now?
My family originated in that neighborhood - 22 Hirschbeck. Have some great family photos of the neighborhood in the 30's 40's
sad to say, that area lies in the path of destruction. Things will likely get worse before getting better. Broadway, from Memorial to Bailey, is becoming a ghost town. Fifteen years ago there were many storefronts filled with businesses. Not so today. The Tops just east of Bailey has only a few more years left on the lease. I'm not confident they will renew.
St. John Kanty had a strong local community and that area became the buffer for a good while against blight, but it will be a while before pressure downward abates.
Good news geographically: Broadway is further south than the strongest blight (Genesee, Delavan and Walden are each more decayed, I would say). You are close to Lovejoy, which may tread water long enough to get good again.
I don't know of any grants, save for those available to low income owners and buyers.
My advice: talk to Broadway/Fillmore neighborhood housing corporation, 716-852-3130 and also talk to someone at the polish community center, 716-893-7222. Someone there (Marge Wesolewski??) was very active in housing in that vicinity.
If your goal is to invest $40,000 in order to save the house and then recoup your money, I'm skeptical you could make it work: it's hard to direct improvements from across town much less out of town. $40k (less purchase cost) buys less in improvement than one would imagine when you have to pay everyone else to do the work. Depending upon the neighboring properties, it can be very difficult to get $40,000. And then you have to worry about getting the payments, making sure taxes and water and utilities are kept up to date, etc.
On the other hand, maybe it's in a good pocket. Maybe the Neighborhood Housing Service will have a prospective buyer. Maybe the NHS would adopt that block as a target to improve and maybe you could be involved with your family's property. But I'm not sure. A low income first time buyer or low income existing owner can get grants to fix for which you don''t qualify. Better for the property to go to the NHS directly and then to the buyer?? They can give you some advice.
Hey....
Come check out http://broadwayfillmorealive.org
Broadway Bailey is part of our footprint...
Where there is interest there is hope...