Objections from Mayor Byron W. Brown have killed a $12 million East Side rental housing plan that the Brown administration previously supported.
As a result, the $2.2 million in state funds allocated for the project, as well as federal tax credits worth an estimated $7.4 million, revert back to the state.
"I think it's dead," Brown said in a recent interview with The Buffalo News. "I think since the non-issue of this, you know, the allegations that were raised, I personally have no interest in going forward with that."
Brown was referring to allegations made by NRP Group of Cleveland last year after its plan to build 50 rental homes in the Masten and Cold Spring neighborhoods stalled in City Hall.
The city Planning Board and the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency approved the NRP project, and the city also endorsed its application for state funds.
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But in April 2009, after NRP had spent $400,000 on the project, and just as developers were ready to start building, Buffalo failed to transfer the vacant lots or authorize funding and tax agreements, as previously promised.
NRP officials charged that the project stalled because the development firm refused to hire an organization associated with the Rev. Richard T. Stenhouse, a prominent Buffalo pastor, to oversee minority hiring and related aspects of the project.
Brown has repeatedly denied that, saying that as he learned more about the project, he grew uncomfortable with the concept of housing that would be rented for 30 years before being sold to homeowners.
"A situation where people would be renting in a residential environment for 30 years, I thought was very unattractive," the mayor said in a recent interview. "It might have benefited the Cleveland developer, but I didn't see how it benefited people who lived in the City of Buffalo. I'd like to be helping people go from being renters to being homeowners, and the more people that we can get to be homeowners, the stronger our neighborhoods will be."
NRP officials did not respond to requests to comment on Brown's announcement that the project is dead.
Belmont Shelter Housing Resources of WNY, the local developer working with NRP, expressed its disappointment.
"Considering how difficult it is to get this kind of funding, it was especially unfortunate that Buffalo didn't take advantage of the almost $10 million that New York State had committed to building much-needed affordable housing in our city," said Belmont Shelter Vice President Michael Riegel.
If the mayor was uncomfortable with the long-term rent-to-own arrangement, the city could have asked the state to approve the project as strictly rental units, which are needed on the East Side, said Michael Clarke, who heads a housing and community group in Buffalo.
"It would have given low-income families good rentals," Clarke said.
Brown's acknowledgment that the NRP deal is dead comes just weeks after the state-imposed deadline for moving forward with the project passed.
Asked if the city's about-face on the project could damage Buffalo's reputation among developers, Brown said he doesn't believe that will be the case.
"Zero. Zero. Because, again, from what I could see, there were great benefits for them and fewer benefits for the community," Brown said. "They were coming from out of town, they were going to take a boatload of money out of this community, and they were going to put people in houses that they were going to be renting for 30 years. I think their counterproposal was maybe to reduce that to 15 years. I think we should be trying to help people become homeowners. That's the American dream. Not long-term renters."
