Senator Kennedy, Assemblywoman Peoples-Stokes Announce Much-Needed Housing Grant for Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood

This $200,000 grant from New York State Affordable Housing Corporation will be disbursed to homeowners within a targeted revitalization area to help support necessary home repairs.

Broadway-Fillmore NHS and HomeFront highlight neighborhood progress, announce new staffing and program changes. 

M&T Foundation awards $20,000 grant to streamline delivery of Broadway-Fillmore NHS and HomeFront housing grant programs.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Senator Tim Kennedy and Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes today announced a much-needed investment in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood that will help restore, rehabilitate and revitalize homes within the community. The New York State Affordable Housing Corporation (AHC) has awarded Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services a $200,000 grant to support homeowners within a targeted neighborhood revitalization area along the Fillmore Corridor. The funds will be used to help 20 income-eligible homeowners, who reside in the targeted area, make necessary repairs to their homes.

The M&T Foundation is also providing a $20,000 grant to build capacity and streamline delivery of Broadway-Fillmore NHS and HomeFront housing grant programs. This M&T Foundation grant will support the expanding East Side housing rehabilitation efforts of Broadway-Fillmore NHS  and help the housing agency implement the new AHC grants for the Fillmore Corridor. The state AHC grants will be linked to other grant program where possible, and to Broadway-Fillmore’s home repair loan program. 

“To build a stronger Buffalo, we need to strengthen our neighborhoods – and this grant from the state will help us do exactly that,” said Senator Kennedy. “This direct investment in Broadway-Fillmore’s housing stock will help lift the entire neighborhood, which has been targeted for revitalization. Through our coordinated efforts and relentless hard work, Broadway-Fillmore is fighting back – and we all know the best is yet to come. There’s much more work to be done, but with this state investment, there’s more progress ahead for this historic neighborhood.”

“Congratulations to HomeFront and Broadway Fillmore NHS on their partnership quickly reaping benefits, and thank you to the Affordable Housing Corporation and my friend Commissioner Darryl Towns for making this possible,” said Assemblywoman Peoples-Stokes. “This once neglected neighborhood is finally receiving the attention and coordinated investment that it deserves. This $200,000 grant, combined with continued improvements to MLK Park and the federal streetscape project already underway, serve as a catalyst to the rebirth of the MLK Park neighborhood. I’m very proud of our community activists for being undeterred in their relentlessness, but our fight is far from over. We'll need your continued commitment.”

After two years of sharing an address, office space, and an executive director on Buffalo’s East Side, the partnership between Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. and HomeFront, Inc. is paying dividends, according to John Murphy, who serves as executive director of both housing agencies.

New staff include a shared housing rehabilitation specialist, Cory Baskerville, who will immediately begin providing specification-writing for the $200,000 Affordable Housing Corporation home repair grant to Broadway-Fillmore NHS.  Joining HomeFront’s staff is Francisca Licona, a University of Buffalo graduate with a Masters Degree in Urban Planning.  Ms. Licona will act as a program and special projects manager for new and existing programs, and provide Spanish language services for both agencies.

Kennedy and Peoples-Stokes said a driving force behind the neighborhood’s progress has been the Fillmore Corridor Neighborhood Coalition (FCNC), which is composed of various interest groups and community organizations interested in bringing resources and positive change to a target area from the Larkin District to Urban Street north of Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.

FCNC members have raised $10,000 to manufacture four recycling and trash receptacles along Fillmore Avenue to help keep the area clean and provide residents with attractive containers for recycling and litter.  These containers will look similar to receptacles along Elmwood Avenue, with East Side-themed designs created by students from Daemen College, which is a member of the FCNC. 

Buffalo Councilman David Franczyk and the Oishei Foundation provided seed funding for the ongoing trash receptacle project. 

Besides the $200,000 AHC home repair grant and creation of trash containers, the FCNC has also helped bring in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency technical assistance grant to the east side under that federal agency’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program with a ‘next steps’ report to the community due shortly.  

###