By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer  First published: Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Urban flight leaves legacy of empty buildings
Albany -- Survey finds highest vacancy rates in distressed neighborhoods

There are more than 800 vacant structures in Albany and some of the most blighted downtown neighborhoods have vacancy rates 10 times higher than those of healthy suburban areas.

"We knew there were a large number of vacant buildings and this was a big problem for the city. We wanted to collect data that would help policymakers address this issue," said Elizabeth Griffin, executive director of Historic Albany Foundation.

Griffin's group commissioned what is believed to be the first survey of its kind for a small- or medium-sized city in New York state.

University at Albany graduate students made a comprehensive, street-by-street visual inspection last fall of single-family homes, apartment buildings, commercial sites and mixed-use properties. The vacant and abandoned structures represent thousands of housing units.

Preliminary data are being reviewed before final numbers are released in May, when the total of 800 vacant structures could change.

"Vacant or abandoned buildings are of concern for a variety of quality-of-life issues and several groups are discussing how to come up with solutions," said Lori Harris, Albany's commissioner of development and planning.

The Albany neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of vacant buildings include portions of the South End, Arbor Hill and West Hill.

"A lot of people had been working very hard on revitalizing downtown, but I think we all woke up and smelled the coffee that we need to address the issue of marginal neighborhoods separately," said Steve Longo, executive director of the Albany Housing Authority.

As a barometer of inner-city decay, the Albany vacant buildings survey surprised few who work on housing issues. But it highlighted the entrenched social problems that undergird flight from the urban core.

"It's not surprising that there are 800 vacant structures because there has been disinvestment in the city for a number of years," said Charles Touhey, who builds affordable housing in troubled neighborhoods of Albany.

Aside from being eyesores that scare away potential renters or buyers, the high number of vacant structures also raise concern about public safety because they pose attractive targets for arson, drug dealing and other criminal activity.

In fact, the 17 UAlbany graduate students who conducted the survey found squatters in some of the abandoned buildings, according to Catherine Lawson, UAlbany assistant professor of geography and planning, and the survey's director.

The students assessed categories such as broken windows, crumbling roofs, boarded-up doorways, fire damage and other signs of abandonment. They are using the latest in geographic information systems (GIS) to map their findings electronically.

"We captured a snapshot of the situation, which is very dynamic," Lawson said. "When the students went out a second and third time, they found some of their buildings had been occupied and others had burned."

Those same Albany neighborhoods with the highest vacancy rates correspond to 2000 federal census data that confirms they have the highest rates of poverty and highest percentage of blacks in Albany, according to John Logan, a distinguished professor of sociology and public policy and director of the Lewis Mumford Center at the University at Albany.

Portions of Albany's South End, Arbor Hill and West Hill neighborhoods have nearly 22 percent vacancy rates, among the highest in the Capital Region, Logan said.

As a whole, Albany, Schenectady and Troy have vacancy rates of roughly 10 percent to 15 percent citywide.

"Anything above 10 percent reflects a distressed neighborhood and a number above 20 percent jumps out as severely distressed," Logan said.

By contrast, desirable suburban neighborhoods, including parts of Delmar, Niskayuna, Guilderland and East Greenbush have vacancy rates of less than 3 percent.

But affordable housing developers like Touhey are trying to reverse the troubling trend of abandonment of inner-city neighborhoods.

"If you're going to chip away at this huge problem, you've got to start with new investment and new homeowners, one at a time," Touhey said. "You can't wipe away all 800 at once."

Touhey recently built and sold three new houses that reclaimed abandoned parcels in the South End. With federal, state and local subsidies, the 1,400-square-foot, three-bedroom new houses were sold to low-income families who qualify for a $73,000 mortgage. All the new homeowner has to pay is a $500 down payment and $550 a month in mortgage payments.

"We know it works because we see the results," Touhey said. Numerous studies have shown that the most stabilizing force for a neighborhood in decline is an influx of owner-occupants who take pride in their properties and deter crime by their presence, he added.

"I see good, positive energy in Albany with the city and a lot of groups working to reduce the large inventory of vacant properties," said Richard Norelli, president of Rehab America, based in Latham.

In the past three years, Norelli's firm has rehabilitated and resold 47 vacant houses, mostly single-family, and primarily in the South End and Arbor Hill.

"We've tackled a little bit of the problem and we plan to keep going," said Norelli, who typically sells the homes in the low-$60,000 range, with monthly mortgage payments of about $575 through FHA financing.

"We feel it's good, quality housing at a fair price," Norelli said. "If we do enough of them, we can run a reasonable business. We see it as a win-win situation all around."