With a boarded-up derelict property on Chambers Street in Newburgh as his backdrop, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney announced a new plan that he believes would breathe new life into so-called “zombie” homes, while also providing a place to live for homeless veterans.
The federal legislation, called the “Housing Our Heroes Act,” would create a $25 million, three-year pilot program within the Department of Veterans Affairs that would provide federal investments to Veterans Service Organizations to acquire blighted properties like the one on Chambers Street. Those homes would be renovated into housing for homeless veterans, who would then repay the Veterans Service Organization following a year of occupancy.
Officials assert that zombie homes, those neglected properties stuck in prolonged foreclosure proceedings, can be magnets for crime and drag down surrounding property values. Maloney said the Housing Our Heroes program would improve neighborhoods by restoring abandoned properties, increasing property values and encouraging growth.
“We”™ve got all these zombie properties dragging down home values and housing criminal activities, and we”™ve got veterans living on the streets or struggling to buy a home ”“ it doesn”™t take a genius to figure out that we can kill two birds with one stone here,” said Maloney, whose district office is in Newburgh. “This legislation would help us fulfill our promise to our veterans and help redevelop blighted areas of our communities.”
There are at least 16,000 zombie homes across the state based on data released by RealtyTrac, a California-based realty information company. According to a report from the Independent Democratic Conference, bank-owned foreclosed homes in Westchester County have caused more than $9.2 million in house value depreciation. The IDC also reported 49 bank-owned homes and 91 zombie properties in the 40th Senate District, which includes parts of Westchester, Dutchess and Putnam counties. In total, there are 247 zombie properties in Dutchess County and 114 in Putnam County.
“For so many veterans, homeownership is a dream that has been out of reach, and this bill will remove the blight from our communities while helping our veterans achieve that dream,” said Michele McKeon, COO of Middletown-based anti-poverty agency RECAP.
There are nearly 40,000 homeless veterans across the country, and roughly 1,300 of those veterans live in New York State, according to 2016 statistics from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Housing Our Heroes Act, which is sponsored by Illinois Democrat Bradley Schneider, has so far received bipartisan support in the House. Co-sponsors include Maloney and Washington Rep. Derek Kilmer, both Democrats, and Republicans Thomas Rooney from Florida and Elise Stefanik from New York.
The act was previously introduced in 2015 but died in committee.
“Supporting our veterans and military heroes should never be a partisan issue ”“ especially when it involves passing a bill that is just pure commonsense,” Maloney said. “Four of us, two democrats and two republicans, actually joined together to introduce the Housing Our Heroes Act, so I am optimistic that with continued bipartisan support, we can get something done to both end veteran homelessness and revitalize zombie homes in our communities.”
The proposed legislation is the latest in a string of initiatives aimed at helping communities deal with the blight of zombie homes. In July of last year, a $13 million Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative invited 100 communities in New York that have the most significant zombie-home problem to apply for a piece of that funding.
A state law passed last summer also imposed new rules on banks, requiring them to maintain abandoned houses before foreclosures are completed or face civil penalties of up to $500 per day. That law also established a statewide electronic registry of vacant and abandoned properties, along with a hotline where community members can report those sites.
