NY Attorney General Announces Funding for Land Banks – Important Aug. and Sept. Dates

From the AG’s Website:

In July 2013, New York State Attorney General Schneiderman launched his Land Banks Community Revitalization Initiative, which is dedicating a portion of the funds awarded to New York under the National Mortgage Settlement to support legally designated Land Banks, formed under the New York State Land Bank Act of 2011. In the first round of grant awards, which was announced on October 29, 2013, the Attorney General awarded $13 million to eight land banks statewide, including:

The Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Bank Corporation, which was awarded $2.087 million;
The Rochester Land Bank Corporation, which was awarded $2.78 million;
The Greater Syracuse Property Development Corporation, which was awarded $3 million;
The Chautauqua County Land Bank Corporation, which was awarded $1.5 million;
The Newburgh Community Land Bank, which was awarded $2.45 million;
The Suffolk County Land Bank Corporation, which was awarded $675,000;
The Capital Region Land Bank, which was awarded $150,000; and
The Broome County Land Bank, which was awarded $150,000.

In his second round of funding, the Attorney General’s Initiative will be making up to $20 million available to land banks statewide. Applications for this second round of funding are available now.

The projects selected for funding will carry out a range of vital community development activities, including demolition of blighted, vacant, and abandoned homes; acquisition and renovation of vacant homes, including remediation of environmental hazards; resale of renovated properties as affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families; acquisition of vacant land that will be transferred to existing community residents who will maintain and repurpose the underutilized open space; and environmental pre-development studies and analyses that will eventually lead to remediation and redevelopment of brownfield sites. Proceeds from the resale of renovated properties will go back to the land banks and allow them to continue their work.

As stated in the law, “there is an overriding public need to confront the problems caused by vacant, abandoned and tax-delinquent properties” that resulted in large measure from the foreclosure crisis. Communities can use Land Banks as a tool to “facilitate the return of vacant, abandoned and tax-delinquent properties to productive use… for the benefit of the public and the State as a whole.” The Attorney General Office’s Community Revitalization Initiative Request for Applications will encourage the utilization of funds for “foreclosure relief and housing programs” and “community blight remediation,” as intended under the terms of the National Mortgage Settlement.

In total, the Community Revitalization Initiative will provide Land Banks in New York State with $33 million from the Attorney General’s Office to promote community revitalization efforts. Additionally, land banks have used Attorney General Schneiderman’s funding to leverage additional resources from both private and public sources in order to expand their community revitalization efforts. A conservative estimate suggests that the land banks will be able to access a combined total of more than $21 million in other public and private funding over the next two years.

All applications for first-round funding must be submitted electronically to the Attorney General’s Office by 4 PM on September 19, 2014.

A mandatory conference call hosted by the Attorney General’s Office will be held for all applicants on August 20, 2014.

The call-in number and call details will be posted on this web page no later than August 10, 2014.

Written questions may be submitted in advance of the call. All questions regarding this RFA should be submitted by email to Dina Levy at Dina.Levy@ag.ny.gov. Please include “Land Bank RFA” in the subject line when submitting questions.

http://www.ag.ny.gov/feature/land-bank-community-revitalization