Vacant home on South Park Avenue in Buffalo
The vacant house problem in Buffalo has been evident for some time with the city's declining population but residents still contact 2 On Your Side with their concerns about homes they feel are dangerous or just an eyesore to their neighborhood.
Recently some neighbors in South Buffalo informed us about a home at 1378 South Park Avenue. There does appear to be some structural problems with the home and some doors and windows are open so that people or animals could enter it.
As it turns out, Mayor Byron Brown spoke of his administration's progress in dealing with vacant homes during his 2012 State of the City Address. He says more than 4.500 homes have been demolished since 2006 with another 1,200 homes rehabbed. Brown says the cost was about $74 Million.
But Mayor Brown agrees it is harder to continue that pace of demolitions with cuts to state funding. The state stopped providing funds to Restore New York which provided nearly $30 Million to the city of Buffalo for demolition work.
Brown says the city will spend about $8 Million this year. He says they will also seek more funding from Washington and try to urge Albany to bring back the Restore New York program.
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