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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Agency aims to expand rehabs
Houses in nearby areas targeted
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    A Schenectady County child advocacy agency is seeking a state grant to employ economically disadvantaged young adults in rehabilitating distressed houses in communities outside the city.
    The homes would then be sold to low- to moderate-income families, who would have to live in them for several years and pay property taxes.
    Northeast Parent & Child Society is looking to obtain $750,000 — the maximum allowed — over two years through the state’s Community Development Block Grant program.
    “The idea is to buy them up, fix them and sell them,” said Ray Gillen, commissioner of economic development and planning for Schenectady County. The county will file the grant on Northeast’s behalf.
    Northeast spokeswoman Laura Alpert said the agency will hire young adults from the towns and village for the project, whereas past projects hired them just from the city. “It is a wonderful opportunity and it can only make the Capital Region an exciting place to live,” she said.
    Should Northeast obtain the grant, it will purchase three houses in either Rotterdam, Scotia or Duanesburg, or in all three municipalities, and employ 15 people ages 18-24 through its nationally recognized Schenectady YouthBuild program to rehabilitate them, Gillen said.
    Duanesburg Supervisor Rene Merrihew praised the program. “It will benefit a family in the long run in Duanesburg, and it will put some kids to work and teach them kids some skills,” she said.
    As part of the program, the town will consider phasing in the town tax for the home’s new owner, Merrihew said.
    Duanesburg has 15 properties she called distressed or empty through foreclosure. “That number surprised me,” she said.
    According to the grant application, Northeast would buy each house for $40,000 and pay the 15 young adults $111,000 for their work. It would pay Better Neighborhoods Inc. $75,000 as its contractor. The cost to rehabilitate each house is estimated at $67,000. The final costs, factoring in labor and materials, to rehabilitate each house would be approximately $250,000, according to the application.
    “It is a total gut. These are distressed properties,” Gillen said. He said the houses will incorporate the latest technologies to make them energy efficient.
    Northeast has rehabilitated and sold 75 houses in the city through its YouthBuild program since 2006, using more than $1 million in federal grants and employing 67 economically disadvantaged young adults, according to the grant application.
    YouthBuild teaches construction trade skills to the young adults, Gillen said.
    This year’s grant is to be used for the first time in areas that do not get Community Development Block Grant funds, Gillen said. “Any benefits of this grant must go to the towns and villages. The city gets direct funding from CDBG as an entitlement community,” he said. “While Schenectady County has not been hit as hard as other counties on foreclosure, we do have areas where housing units in the towns and villages are in distressed condition.”
    The county will file the grant on Northeast’s behalf, and if the grant is awarded, it will receive a $68,000 administrative fee, Gillen said. He said the ...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01102

THANK YOU MRS SAVAGE AND DAGOSTINO FOR HELPING OUR KIDS

I know I did not say "teach THEM kids some skills".  

"The final costs, factoring in labor and materials, to rehabilitate each house would be approximately $250,000, according to the application."

you can build brand new houses for that much money! how much are they going to sell them for? are these low - to middle income families going to have 250,000 mortgages with no money down? isnt this how we got into this problem?

bulldoze the properties, sell the land, let private citizens build as they wish.  

should state money be used to play extreme makeover?

Quoted from 332

"The final costs, factoring in labor and materials, to rehabilitate each house would be approximately $250,000, according to the application."

you can build brand new houses for that much money! how much are they going to sell them for? are these low - to middle income families going to have 250,000 mortgages with no money down? isnt this how we got into this problem?

bulldoze the properties, sell the land, let private citizens build as they wish.  

should state money be used to play extreme makeover?

You are exactly correct. This was my first thought when I read this. Private sector could do it much cheaper without taxpayer's money. If the economy is so bad, and if everyone is hurting for work...why not encourage private businesses to put people to work. Ya know....capitalism.

Quoted from 332

"The final costs, factoring in labor and materials, to rehabilitate each house would be approximately $250,000, according to the application."

you can build brand new houses for that much money! how much are they going to sell them for? are these low - to middle income families going to have 250,000 mortgages with no money down? isnt this how we got into this problem?

bulldoze the properties, sell the land, let private citizens build as they wish.  

should state money be used to play extreme makeover?

hire the illegal now legal immigrants at $2.00/hour......lower the cost.....along with everyone elses wages.......