In late 2014, Broome County was awarded $750,000 in NYS Community Development Block Grant Funds – Community Renewal Funding for blight removal and housing rehabilitation.

With the funds, the BC Home Ownership & Housing Initiative was established with the goal of removing blight by rehabilitating foreclosed, vacant homes and creating affordable housing for persons of low-to-moderate income; this initiative was later renamed the BCLB’s Affordable Homes Program.

Then in 2016, the BCLB took title to its first two rehabilitation properties, 1857 Burdick Road in the Town of Binghamton and 117 Lagrange Street in the Town of Vestal. Both properties were foreclosed on by Broome County Government due to unpaid back taxes and transferred to the BCLB.

With properties identified, the BCLB initiated the steps towards rehabilitating the properties, beginning with environmental remediation in 2017. To help oversee the projects, the BCLB contracted with First Ward Action Council (FWAC) to be its construction manager on the projects, handle the administration of the homeownership program, and oversee the sale of the homes following the renovations.

In 2018, the BCLB successfully completed the rehabilitation and sale of these two single-family; both homes were completed by early April and put on the market for sale. Within weeks of the homes being listed, two parties, both first-time homebuyers, qualified to purchase the homes.

The purchase price for 117 Lagrange Street in the Town Vestal was $89,900, and the sale price for 1857 Burdick Road in the Town of Binghamton was $110,000. The BCLB Board of Directors approved the sale of both homes, and each family was moved into their new homes by mid-summer.

Since its inception, the BCLB has fully renovated and sold seven homes under its Affordable Homes Program, returning nearly $800,000 in assessed value to the local property tax rolls. On top of that, to date, all of the BCLB buyers still reside in the homes they purchased, and they continue to build upon our shared success.