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CURRENT CAMPAIGNS:

VICTORY!:

$3 Million for Buffalo and the "Block by Block" Initiative

The Block by Block Initiative is the culmination of PUSH's year-long "MBBA" campaign regarding 1,499 houses that the State left abandoned across Buffalo.   Under pressure from PUSH and others, the State recently transferred  houses to the city for demolition and/or rehab.  Governor Spitzer's housing team was attentive to concerns expressed by PUSH members and other leaders like Sam Hoyt, Maria Whyte and Brian Higgins about the need for focused, strategic investment in our neighborhoods, and the result is the Block by Block program.

PUSH is excited about the opportunity the Block by Block program presents to non-profits, who will be able to apply for grants for revitalizing their respective neighborhoods across Buffalo. PUSH is also in the process of advocating that the contractors who take on revitalization projects employ a minimum of 50% of their workers from the surrounding neighborhoods as a way to increase the self-determination of the neighborhoods while providing jobs. Thanks to all of those who aided PUSH in the successful MBBA campaign!.

For extensive media coverage of PUSH's accountability campaign, click here. For a two page fact sheet on MBBA/JER and the crisis of housing abandonment created by their deal, click here. 

 

  

WEST SIDE REVITALIZATION PLATFORM

What PUSH and its members have developed as a result of the anti-poverty summit:

In order to save our neighborhoods and reduce Buffalo's poverty rate, we seek a strong commitment to the following principles from the Mayor and other public and private officials:

  • The City and the State should work with community-based partners to develop an integrated approach to community reinvestment, including rehabilitation, deconstruction, demolition, greenspace management, landbanking and weatherization.

  • The City, the State and its public and private partners should rehabilitate at least 20 homes on the West Side in 2008.  This number should increase by 10 in each successive year. (Citywide Goal: 100 rehabilitated houses per year) 

  • The City, the State and its public and private partners should assist at least 100 low to moderate-income residents in becoming homeowners on the West Side in 2008. (Citywide Goal:  400 low to moderate-income homeowners per year)

  • The City should work with community-based partners to gain input on which abandoned properties need immediate demolition or deconstruction and begin the formation of a property information database.  The 20 worst properties on the West Side should be demolished or deconstructed immediately.

  • Contractors on publicly funded revitalization projects citywide should hire and train low-income residents for at least 50% of construction jobs.  This requirement should be built into RFPs for neighborhood-based revitalization projects.The City, the State and its public and private partners should commit to weatherizing at least 200 homes on the West Side in 2008. (Citywide Goal: 400 weatherized homes per year)



Look out for information on PUSH's next campaign.