A group of Queens pols is touting a new program to help people living in foreclosed homes turn their fortunes around.
Council members representing southeast Queens gathered Tuesday morning to unveil the new Foreclosure Buyback Program, also known as the City Restoration Program.
They said the initiative is the first in the country of its kind, and would allow nonprofits to purchase distressed mortgages throughout New York City from the Federal Housing Association.
More than 40 so-called “zombie homes” across New York City have been selected for the pilot program, which has partnered with a number of nonprofits to purchase distressed mortgages.
Once these are bought back from the FHA, the nonprofits will work with families to restructure their mortgages and give them the opportunity to remain in their homes.
Councilman I. Daneek Miller, who spearheaded the program, called it a response to the foreclosure crisis that has disproportionately struck areas like southeast Queens.
“Communities are redlined,” Miller said, referring to the discriminatory practice of banks rejecting mortgages for residents of certain areas.
“You can’t go through a traditional bank to get a traditional mortgage, and then we become very vulnerable and susceptible to predatory lenders.”
Councilman Donovan Richards said foreclosed houses are dangerous and hurt surrounding communities’ quality of life.
“Crime is happening in these homes,” he said. “There are drug dealers in these homes.”
Tashie, a homeowner living in Jamaica, Queens, stopped by to commend the Council members for their work.
“The house next door to mine was boarded up about a month ago. Me and my family don’t feel safe because we don’t know who is living there,” said Tashie, who declined to give her last name.
The Foreclosure Buyback Program seeks to prevent such foreclosures and “is a huge shot in the arm for those who have been struggling,” said Richards.
The program has received funding from the New York City Council, as well as $6.9 million in private financing from Goldman Sachs’s Urban Investment Group.
For Miller, the aim is to find solutions for the more than 9,000 homes facing foreclosure in New York City.
With programs like these, “you’re going to see a major change in housing throughout Southeast Queens.”
