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Home > Leadership > Mayor > Archive Press Releases > 2009 Archives > June 2009 > Mayor Brown Welcomes New Residents To Buffalo’s Homeownership Zone

Mayor Brown Welcomes New Residents To Buffalo’s Homeownership Zone

Contact: Melanie Gregg 
              851-5468 or
              Doug Carpenter 
              884-2358 x168 

Phase 2 Brings 28 Attractive New Single-Family Homes to Buffalo’s East Side

Mayor Byron W. Brown today helped cut the ribbon on a new residential neighborhood in the City of Buffalo. The event celebrated the latest success of Buffalo’s Home Ownership Zone (HOZO) initiative, Phase 2 of which has already sold more than half of the 28 four-bedroom/1½-bath single-family homes it built on Hickory, Myrtle and Swan Streets on the City’s East Side to aspiring low- to moderate-income homeowners.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and subsidies secured through HSBC Bank USA, NA from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York’s Affordable Housing Program, the properties were developed by a partnership teaming the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency with non-profit New Opportunities Community Housing Development Corp.

“The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency is pleased to be a partner in this important project,” said Mayor Brown. “With Buffalo’s aging housing stock, we have seen an increase in demand for new, maintenance-free homes. This project is great because it helps people realize their dreams of homeownership and it beautifies streets that were abandoned or filled with boarded-up homes.”

New Opportunities President Elizabeth Huckabone noted that her organization is proud to play a continuing role in this important effort, which is building on the success of the project’s 19-home Phase 1 in 2006 to expand the opportunity for home ownership to more area families. “The fact that all 13 of the available homes on Hickory were purchased in less than 7 months,” Huckabone added, “demonstrates our community’s on-going compelling need for quality affordable housing.”

The homes, which are located on spacious lots only minutes from Downtown, the Thruway and public transit, offer a wide range of desirable features, including maintenance-free exteriors and attached one-car garages with remote door openers.

The interiors include full-size dining rooms and kitchens equipped with full-size energy-efficient ranges and frost-free refrigerators and built-in dishwashers and garbage disposals as well as both washers and dryers.

The homes are protected by electronic security systems and offer full-size basements with high-efficiency furnaces and hot water tanks.

Information about the Phase 2 Home Ownership Zone properties still available for purchase by income-qualifying buyers can be accessed on-line at www.belmontshelter.org or by calling 884-2358 Ext. 107/TDD 711.