Overview
In many areas across NY State, lingering effects of the foreclosure crisis, combined with population loss and limited access to capital have resulted in cities struggling to address blight, particularly vacant and distressed 1-3 unit properties. These abandoned structures continue to drive down market conditions and strain limited municipal resources. As these properties have languished, the cost of renovation is often greater than the after-improved value, putting scalable and targeted revitalization efforts financially out of reach.
In many of these same cities, historic trends in lending discrimination and redlining practices have contributed to a massive homeownership gap in communities of color. This is compounded by the rising costs and limited availability of “move-in” ready homes for sale in these markets.
The Legacy City Access Program will address these market dislocations by providing resources to small developers who have the capacity to take title to and renovate vacant properties, creating new opportunities to promote affordable homeownership for underserved families, particularly first-time homebuyers of color.