Using Publicly-Owned Land To Advance Sustainability and Equity in Buffalo

FEBRUARY 2023
Using Publicly-Owned
Vacant Land to Advance
Sustainability and Equity
in Buffalo, New York
USING PUBLICLY-OWNED VACANT LAND TO ADVANCE SUSTAINABILITY AND EQUITY IN BUFFALO, NY
Contents
Brief Summary ......................................................3
Findings...................................................................4
Recommendations..................................................6
Introduction............................................................8
Scope, Ownership.................................................12
Costs......................................................................13
Reuse Strategies....................................................14
Regulatory Framework and Planning...................52
Below-Market Disposition.....................................61
Community Planning and Decision Making........64
Appendix A:..........................................................67
Appendix B:..........................................................68
Appendix C:..........................................................70
Acknowledgments.................................................74
Endnotes...............................................................75
Front cover photo by Grassroots Gardens.
2
Brief Summary
The City of Buffalo owns roughly 8,000 vacant
lots. Over 3,000 acres of land, these vacant
parcels are largely the result of historic
discriminatory land policies, which encouraged
white flight and left thousands of empty homes
vulnerable to demolition. When the dust
settled, the City found itself with thousands of
vacant lots, many of which it has not sufficiently
maintained ever since. Examples from Buffalo
and around the nation prove, however, that
vacant urban land can be repurposed for
affordable housing, community gardens, urban
farms, parks, playgrounds, trails, green
infrastructure, public art, and other beneficial
uses. These reuses generate jobs, improve
neighborhoods, and attract more residents and
visitors, thus helping rebuild the City’s tax base.
The City should work with residents and
community groups
to create a plan for its vacant land focused on
equity and sustainability, and it should enact
policies to clean and green publicly-owned
properties and make them available for
neighborhood-led uses.
3
Findings VACANT LAND.

• Scope. As its population shrank from 580,132 residents (1950) to
SEVERE DISPARITIES. 255,284 (2019), Buffalo demolished much of its housing. Today,
Systemic racism and disinvestment has roughly 15 percent of real estate parcels are vacant land,
led to poverty and inequality in Buffalo: representing some 3,300 acres. The City and related public
• poverty – the city’s rate is over 30 agencies own 7,918 vacant lots.
percent; • Costs. The City's failure to maintain vacant lots costs it money in
• unemployment – the rate for people of the long-term and causes negative impacts for residents and
color is more than twice that for whites; surrounding neighborhoods. Neglected vacant lots cost the public
• segregation – the city sits in the sixth through a decreased property tax base, higher crime rates,
most segregated metropolitan region in negative health outcomes, and disinvestment. These lots are
the country; concentrated in the East Side of Buffalo, resulting in
• unaffordable housing –half the city’s disproportionate harm to neighborhood residents.
renters cannot afford their housing.
• New uses. Examples from Buffalo and around the nation show
that community groups and residents are repurposing vacant lots
SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES.
to promote equity and sustainability with:
In addition to the global climate - clean and green treatments;
emergency, Buffalo has profound - green affordable housing;
problems with pollution, energy poverty, - community gardens;
and environmental health issues such - urban farms;
as lead poisoning and asthma. These - trees;
problems disproportionately impact - pollinator gardens;
people with low incomes and people of - green infrastructure such as rain gardens to control stormwater;
color: - renewable energy;
• residential buildings are the leading - bicycle and pedestrian paths;
source of Buffalo’s greenhouse - parks and playgrounds; and
emissions (34 percent); - public art.
• in Erie County, energy costs represent
• Job creation. Transforming vacant lots can provide entry-level
77 percent of household income for
“green collar” jobs for those who need them most, including
those at or below 50 percent of the
young people and people who were formerly incarcerated.
federal poverty level;
• lead poisoning rates in Buffalo are • Rising prices. Prices for vacant land are rising rapidly in some
higher than those in Flint, Michigan, parts of the city; on the West Side, parcels that cost $500 less than
and children in neighborhoods of 10 years ago are now appraised by the City at over $20,000.
color are 12 times more likely to have • Current policies.
elevated blood lead levels; - Buffalo lacks a plan for its vacant land, and it sells very few of its
• Buffalo's sewer system overflows an vacant parcels per year.
average of 69 times per year, putting - With limited exceptions, the City requires nonprofit agencies to
1.75 billion gallons of wastewater and pay market rate for vacant parcels, even when they have been
untreated stormwater into local maintaining the lots for public purposes, which creates a barrier
waterways. to reuse.
- Buffalo’s new land use law, the Green Code, offers some
encouragement to urban farming and gardening, but more
policies and programs are needed to encourage sustainable food
production.
4
ed
ential
City-owned
vacant lots
mercial Map of City-Owned Parcels, Showing Concentration of Vacant Lots on the East Side (Map from Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency).
munity 5
Recommendations
Community planning Clean and green.

and decision-making. The City should emulate Philadelphia and create
a large-scale “clean and green” program, using the
The City should begin a community planning process Mayor’s Summer Youth Program and nonprofit
for its vacant land inventory, as Cleveland has done. partners to generate quality jobs linked to education
Each neighborhood should have its own plan, tailored and training, while turning neighborhood eyesores
to its conditions and its residents’ goals, and each into assets and managing stormwater to reduce sewage
plan should embody sustainability, equity, community overflows.
control, and the need to prevent displacement of
residents by gentrification.
The City should also consult with the Seneca Nation
on ways to return land to the Nation and protect sites Dedicating land to
with special historical or spiritual significance, such as
burial mounds.
community benefits.
Using deed restrictions, easements, community land
trusts, and other tools, Buffalo should dedicate a large
portion, perhaps one-half, of its publicly-owned land to
Moratorium. uses that promote equity and sustainability.
The City should enact a moratorium on the sale
of vacant parcels to for-profit developers until the
community planning process is complete and new
policies have been enacted to ensure that the
Funding for community
community benefits from any sale of publicly-owned projects.
land. The City should create a fund and participatory
budgeting process for community-led projects on vacant
Community-led decision land, such as recreation, gardening, or public art.
making.
Block club and community garden leaders, local
nonprofit agencies, and the City should collaborate
Cities around the country are
with Buffalo residents to explore the potential reuse of lamenting that they did not make
vacant lots for public benefit. Each neighborhood in better use of their vacant lots while
the city should be provided a map of the publicly
owned land in the neighborhood. Community-led they had the chance; Buffalo has a
decision making, based on residents' ideas and critical opportunity to learn from
priorities, should drive the use and transformation of
vacant lots. their experience and become a
national leader in vacant land policy.
6
Supporting gardening Land disposition policies.

and farming. To facilitate the transfer of publicly-owned land
to nonprofit entities for beneficial purposes, the
The City should: City should:
• provide funding for the development and long-term • make the entire city eligible for the Homestead
maintenance of community gardens and non-profit program and include affordable rental housing and
farms through Community Development Block affordable homeownership as eligible purposes;
Grants and other funding streams; • revise its tax foreclosure laws and policies to reduce
• hire a City staff person dedicated to the promotion of foreclosures and add equity and sustainability
food security, community gardening, and urban criteria to the disposition of tax-foreclosed
farming; properties;
• improve water access with discounted rates, • pass new land disposition policies for the City
installation of spigots in community gardens, access and associated agencies that give first priority to
to fire hydrants, grants for water-line installation, affordable housing, community gardens, and other
and credits for reducing storm water run-off publicly beneficial uses, and create a new Request
• create an Urban Agriculture Property Tax Credit; for Proposals process to transfer 50% of the City’s
• eliminate garbage service fees for farms and gardens, inventory to nonprofit agencies and land trusts at
or provide them with garbage service (currently, they no cost.
pay the fee without getting the service);
• expand its pilot composting program;
• create a zoning designation for urban agricultural
land and more policies that actively encourage Expand and refocus the
farming and gardening;
• identify properties of suitable size, location, zoning, Land Bank.
and soil quality, to set aside for long-term gardening • New York State should provide predictable,
and farming use and then: substantial annual funding for its land banks,
- offer low-cost, long term leases for gardens and designating the funding for publicly beneficial uses
farms; such as affordable housing, community gardens and
- permanently transfer some lots to Grassroots green infrastructure.
Gardens and nonprofit farms for no cost; • Erie County and the City of Buffalo should
- permanently transfer some lots to for-profit farms emulate Syracuse in providing funding to expand
at a discount, if they meet criteria for equity and the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement
sustainability. Corporation
(BENLIC), and they should work with BENLIC staff
to revise its mission and disposition policies to
encourage more below-market or free transfers of
land for uses that benefit the community, including
a right of first refusal for nonprofit affordable
housing developers.
7
Introduction
Questions about the control and use of land are central to the fate of any
city and any discussion of equity. Buffalo was built on land expropriated –
through violence, fraud, and a string of broken treaties – from the Seneca
nation. Over time, many people have come to Buffalo – often participating
in waves of migration or flight from other countries, the southern United
States, and Puerto Rico. How each group has fared has depended in part on
their access to land and real property. Federal, state, and local policies such
as redlining, exclusionary zoning, and the subsidizing of sprawl have
generated inequality and facilitated exploitation.
As a result, Buffalo is grappling with severe, intertwined challenges of

persistent disparities, systemic racism, lack of community ownership, and
neighborhood disinvestment. While the metropolitan region of Buffalo-
Niagara is not unusually poor – ranking about average for the nation – its
poverty is unusually concentrated in its urban cores. Buffalo trails only
Detroit and Cleveland for high poverty among major cities, with a rate of
30.3 percent.1 This urbanized poverty is inseparable from continued intense
racial segregation; the metropolitan region is the sixth most segregated in
the nation for African-Americans and whites.2 For more information on how
redlining and other segregationist policies impacted, see PPG's 2018 report,
“A City Divided: A Brief History of Segregation in Buffalo.”3
Adding to these challenges is the massive depopulation and disinvestment

that Buffalo experienced between 1950 (580,132 residents) and 2019
(255,284 residents), when the region’s manufacturing base was decimated
Between 2001
and federal and state policies rewarded suburbanization and sprawl--with
both government and bank policies excluding people of color from these and 2017, the City
opportunities.4 As the population declined, the housing vacancy rate demolished over
increased from 4.9 percent in 1970 to 15.7 percent in 2010.5 Property
5,900 residential
owners increasingly abandoned properties or did not pay taxes, resulting,
eventually, in the City demolishing the buildings and, in many cases, taking structures and over
title to the land. Between 2001 and 2017, the City demolished over 5,900 700 commercial
residential structures and over 700 commercial buildings.6
buildings.
The most systematically disinvested neighborhoods have faced an intense
loss of density and the civic infrastructure that density supports, including
employment opportunities, full-service grocery stores, bank branches, and
daycare centers. These neighborhoods have experienced an explosion of
vacant lots, which too often become neglected by the City and fuel further
disinvestment. For the City, vacant lots mean a smaller property tax base
and increased maintenance costs, along with countless indirect costs.
Buffalo’s intense poverty and its old, energy-inefficient housing stock have
created a crisis-level problem of unaffordable and unsafe housing, with half
(49 percent) of renter households paying more than they can afford for their
housing, and roughly one third (30 percent) spending more than
8
half of their income on their housing costs.7

New market-rate developments, limited housing stock, and low interest
rates have led to dramatic price increases in a competitive housing market.
Some neighborhoods, particularly those in or near downtown and the
Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, including a large swath of the city’s
West Side, are now seeing a wave of profit-driven investment, with sharply
increased property prices.8 This rise in property values is welcome news to
many, but it also threatens longtime residents with land speculation,
gentrification and displacement. As Dawn Wells-Clyburn, deputy director
of administration at PUSH Buffalo, puts it, “people are being displaced
daily.”9 Belmont Housing, which runs the Section 8 Voucher program in
the city, reports that rents for voucher holders have risen sharply in recent
years, and that increasingly voucher holders are unable to find an
affordable apartment anywhere in the city; many are moving to Niagara
Falls, while others are forced to surrender their vouchers unused.10
Youth Working at MAP Farm (Photo from Massachusetts Avenue Project)
Rising prices also make it more challenging for nonprofit agencies to In 2018, a
convert vacant properties to affordable housing, community gardens, and
urban farms. From 2008 to 2015, affordable housing organization PUSH
speculator bought a
Buffalo was able to acquire dozens of vacant lots, mostly at the City’s vacant lot on the
foreclosure auction, for $500 or less. That is no longer possible. To give an West Side at the
example, three of the lots PUSH bought for $500 (160 Congress, 174
Hampshire, and 217 Massachusetts) are now appraised at $37,000,
foreclosure
$22,200, and $25,900, respectively. For its Westside Homes project, PUSH auction for $8,500
is buying 11 vacant lots from the City’s Division of Real Estate for prices and then listed it for
ranging from $22,200 to $51,800, for a total cost of $405,900.11 Inevitably,
the more PUSH has to pay for properties, the fewer units of green
sale at $60,000.
affordable housing it can build.
9
Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) runs an urban farm on the West

Side. To make the farm, MAP initially bought six vacant lots from allied
nonprofits for $1. Between 2006 and 2008, it bought three additional lots
at the City’s tax foreclosure auction for $500 each. In 2012, it turned to
the City’s Division of Real Estate, which charged fair market value – a
total of $11,500 – for three more lots. By 2018, however, prices had
escalated and speculators had entered the market. MAP considered buying
a lot on Winter Street to expand its gardens there. Unfortunately, a
speculator bought it at the foreclosure auction for $8,500 and then listed it
for sale at $60,000.12 While Buffalo’s West Side has seen speculation before
other parts of the city, these examples showcase a problem likely to
increase as other neighborhoods gentrify.
Buffalo also confronts dire issues of sustainability, including longstanding

problems of sewage treatment, air pollution, and lead paint poisoning,
coupled with the global climate emergency. Responding to these chal-
lenges is made more difficult by the City’s drastically eroded property tax
base and decision to keep tax rates stagnant for many years. This leads to
bare-bones budgets with underfunded public services. Buffalo’s vacant lots
are a symptom of federal, state, local and bank policies that encouraged
wasteful sprawl into suburbs and exurbs, and they exacerbate that problem
by fueling the spiral of disinvestment.
From the City of Baltimore’s “Green Pattern Book”

Vacant land and abandoned structures allow us to rethink the form and function of
the City; we have the opportunity to set aside new areas to grow local food, to clean
the stormwater that now rushes into our streams and harbor, to improve the biological
health of our forests and ecosystems, and to ensure that everyone has safe play spaces
and parks within a short walk of their houses.
Ironically, though, one of Buffalo’s most severe problems is also one of its
greatest assets. While the City is cash-poor, it is land-rich; it now owns
roughly 8,000 vacant parcels of land, which are heavily concentrated on
the East Side. Examples from Buffalo and around the nation show that
publicly-owned land can be used to promote equity and sustainability in
a wide number of ways, including green affordable housing, community
gardens, urban farms, parks and playgrounds, public art installations,
bike and pedestrian paths, renewable energy, and green infrastructure.
Buffalo has another key asset: a vibrant ecosystem of neighborhood

groups, non-profits, universities, faith groups, and labor unions working
to promote equity and revitalize the city. Putting these assets – land and
community – together, can dramatically increase health and prosperity
for residents. The window of opportunity may close fast, however, as
10
City-Owned Vacant Parcels (Map from Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency)
11
speculation in vacant land has increased in recent years, threatening to

raise prices and privatize public land without benefiting the community.
Faced with a similar inventory of vacant lots, the City of Cleveland

partnered with residents, nonprofits and universities to craft a community
plan for how best to use them, with a heavy focus on equity and
sustainability, and it is now executing that plan – with hundreds of lots
already transformed. Similarly, the City of Philadelphia worked with the
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society on an innovative Clean and Green
program that now manages 12,000 vacant lots. Many cities have policies
and programs that prioritize affordable housing and green uses on
publicly-owned land, and many have moved vigorously to transfer public
land to nonprofit agencies at no cost or discounted cost.
Naturally, any city is reluctant to forgo revenue from selling lots. As this
report will make clear, however, green and equitable redevelopment will, in
the long run, help to rebuild Buffalo’s tax base and lower its costs better
than uncontrolled, scattershot speculation and development. Strategic
reuse will raise the value of surrounding properties, make Buffalo more
appealing to potential businesses, residents, and visitors, and increase the
value of the lots that remain in the City’s inventory.
Now is the time for Buffalo to make wise use of its most important asset
before it is privatized. Cities around the country are lamenting that they
did not make better use of their vacant lots while they had the chance;
Buffalo has a critical opportunity to learn from their experience and
become a national leader in vacant land policy. Vacant land policy can do
many things. It can fuel disinvestment and allow municipal neglect; it can
facilitate gentrification and displacement. Done right, however, it can be an
important tool in redressing systemic harms and inequities and in creating
neighborhoods that work for all their residents.
Scope, Ownership
According to an analysis by geographer Jason Knight, as of December
As of 2019 the City
2018 there were approximately 13,779 vacant residential lots in Buffalo.13
These vacant lots represented 14.7 percent of the total number of real and related agencies
property parcels in the city and 16.8 percent of all residential properties.14 owned 7,918 vacant
The vacant land in Buffalo amounts to some 3,300 acres.15 For
lots in Buffalo.
comparison, this is larger than all of North Buffalo (the quadrant of the
city north of the Scajaquada highway, west of Main St., and east of
Military Road), which comprises 3,200 acres.16 According to figures from
the City, as of 2019 the public owned 7,918 vacant lots, mostly through the
City’s Division of Real Estate (7,629), but with some parcels held by other
City departments, the School Board, or various public authorities (this does
not include land owned by the state, federal government, or other public
authorities).17 See Appendix A for more information.
12
Costs
Maintenance. Mowing, cleaning, and maintaining vacant lots costs cities
money – particularly when they become magnets for dumping and other
illegal activities. A 1999 study of vacant lots in Philadelphia estimated
that the city and related public agencies spent $1.8 million annually
on maintaining vacant lots. The study likely underestimated costs, as it Frustrated by the
included only five out of the fifteen agencies that have a role in vacant
property management.18 As this was over twenty years ago, inflation and City's under-
other rising costs mean that today’s figure would be much larger. It is maintenance of the
also important to note that some of the costs of maintaining vacant lots lots, nearby residents
are displaced onto nearby residents, block clubs, and others who, often
frustrated by the City’s under-maintenance of the lots, do their own and block clubs do
mowing, weeding, garbage pick-up, and other tasks on publicly-owned lots. their own mowing,
Reduced property values. Vacant properties sharply reduce the value weeding, garbage
of nearby properties. Studies in Philadelphia and Columbus have found pick-up and other
reductions of 20 percent or more in property value.19 Another report on tasks on publicly-
Philadelphia estimated a total of $3.6 billion in reduced household wealth
from proximity to vacant properties.20 As Alan Mallach notes, “all it takes owned lots.
is a small increase in vacancies to trigger a much bigger drop in house
prices.” A study of Toledo found that, in addition to costing the city $3.8
million per year in direct costs, vacant properties resulted in $2.7 million
per year in lost tax revenues from the vacant properties themselves, $98.7
million in lost property values, and $2.68 million in lost tax revenues from
adjacent properties.21 Given Buffalo’s racial segregation and the
concentration of lots on the East Side, this hurts people of color
disproportionately and prevents them from building wealth through
appreciated home values.
Public health. Vacant lots often become the locus for illegal dumping
and litter, unwelcome rodents, and other unhealthy and demoralizing
problems. They can make residents feel that they live in a neighborhood
that has been abandoned and that is in decline, which can cause stress,
depression, and a loss of civic cohesion.
Crime and violence. Vacant properties cause increases in crime. In one

study, crime rates on blocks with abandoned properties were twice as high
as on those without any abandoned properties.22 Another study, focused on
Pittsburgh, found that when a foreclosed property became vacant, violent
crime in the vicinity went up by 19 percent.23 While this research focuses
on vacant buildings, additional research shows that unimproved vacant lots
also raise crime rates, as we discuss in the next section, “Clean and Green.”
13
Reuse Strategies
CLEAN AND GREEN
The first step in Buffalo’s vacant land strategy should be to clean and
green as many lots as possible – aiming to address every vacant lot within a
certain number of years. Cleaning and greening is essentially the cheapest
way to turn a deficit into an asset. It generally involves removing trash
and debris, planting and maintaining grass or other groundcover, and
adding a simple wood fence to the front of the property. These steps turn a
neglected lot and public health threat into a pleasant green space that is
clearly cared for.
The City of Philadelphia has the nation’s leading clean and green The Philadelphia
program. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) Philadelphia
LandCare program maintains approximately 12,000 lots (30 percent of the
LandCare program
vacant lots in the city).24 LandCare contractors work on new lots in spring has cleaned
and fall and service existing lots 14 times per year, from April to October. and greened
PHS works with 18 community organizations, hiring local residents to
work in their neighborhoods. PHS also runs a Roots to Re-entry program,
approximately 12,000
which has hired and trained more than 25 formerly incarcerated people, lots in Philadelphia
adding 2,000 more parcels to the LandCare inventory. According to PHS, (30 percent of the
it costs roughly $1500 to “clean and green” each lot, while bi-weekly
mowing and maintenance cost $300 a year.25
vacant lots in the city).
LandCare works mostly on publicly-owned lots, but it can also address
privately owned lots if the owner is failing to maintain the premises. The
City will issue a notice giving the owner 10 days to clean up the lot. If the
owner fails to do so, the City gives PHS access and then bills the owner for
the services, making any unpaid bills a lien on the property that must be
paid if it is sold. This also functions as a way to get properties out of the
hands of irresponsible owners.26
A study of LandCare
The PHS program has proven its benefits in many studies. Green spaces found a 13 percent
are good for mental health, just as blighted spaces are bad. In one study of
Philadelphia, residents living near lots that had been cleaned and greened
reduction in crime
experienced a 40 percent decrease in feelings of depression.27 LandCare in surrounding
has also reduced crime, both by improving locations that had been used neighborhoods,
for crime, and by encouraging people to go outside more, thus providing
more “eyes on the street.” One study of the program found a 58 percent
with a 29 percent
reduction in people’s fear of going outside and a 76 percent increase in reduction in
their use of outside spaces.28 The study found a 13 percent reduction in gun violence, 22
crime overall, with a 29 percent reduction in gun violence, 22 percent
reduction in burglary, and a 30 percent reduction in nuisances. The
percent reduction
researchers estimated that the city would experience 350 fewer shootings in burglary, and a 30
each year if every vacant lot were cleaned and greened. The Philadelphia percent reduction in
experience makes a strong case that a large clean and green program pays
nuisances.
14
for itself. Not only does it produce more community benefits than it costs,
but it also improves municipal finances by enhancing the property tax
base while reducing public safety and health costs.
PUSH Clean and Green Lot, 37 19th Street
Buffalo does not yet have a true clean and green program, but it has many
of the elements in place, and many examples of the beneficial impact
PUSH Buffalo has
of cleaning and greening. The City and the Buffalo Sewer Authority renovated over
collaborated on a demonstration green infrastructure project, described 100 vacant lots,
later in this report, which greened 224 post-demolition lots and created 53
jobs.29 PUSH Buffalo has renovated over 100 vacant lots, using a variety
using a variety of
of strategies, including gardens, green infrastructure, public art, strategies, including
playgrounds, and a Philadelphia-style clean and green that includes gardens, green
clearing debris, grading, seeding the lot with grass, and marking it with a
simple wooden fence and plantings. The six fence posts and 30 feet of
infrastructure, public
lumber cost about $200, or $1,000 if professionally installed.30 art, playgrounds,
PUSH has seen many benefits from its vacant lot work. When they clean
and a Philadelphia-
and green a lot, the incidence of illegal dumping of things like sofas, as style clean and green
well as daily littering, drops dramatically, and the lot becomes a safe place treatment.
for neighbors to gather and children to play.31 PUSH cleaned and greened
a vacant lot near Grant and West Delevan, which became a place where
youth at the Grant Street Community Center could play soccer.32 PUSH’s
vacant lot work is popular with neighbors, who, at community meetings,
frequently voice the lack of green space for recreation as a top concern.33
Bryana DiFonzo, director of new economy at PUSH, says, “when you
tend to the green spaces, people in the neighborhood really notice; they
appreciate that someone is caring for the land – especially if they see
people they know, or people who look like them, doing the work.”34
The City of Buffalo contracts for some of its vacant lot maintenance with
15
CEO, a non-profit agency that offers jobs and job training to people who
were formerly incarcerated. In addition, the City operates a large Mayor’s
Summer Youth Program, which already does some vacant lot maintenance
and offers a natural source of seasonal labor for a clean and green
program. Both CEO and summer youth programs have been proven to
offer excellent returns on investment by reducing recidivism, crime, and
violence.35
Buffalo is also home to Groundwork Buffalo, a nonprofit whose mission is

“to build sustainable urban environments in Greater Buffalo by engaging
and empowering families and communities, including youth,
in re-generating and connecting with natural infrastructure and the built
environment.” Groundwork’s Buffalo Green Team offers high school
students paid internships as it works with neighborhoods on projects such
as creating gardens for the African American Cultural Center and the
Friends of the Elderly.36 Currently, Groundwork is active from June to
September, although it would like to go year-round.37 In 2020 it fielded a
crew of 14 people, with six from the Mayor’s Summer Youth Program, six
college students, and two managers.38 The crew built garden beds and
helped maintain lots and do neighborhood clean-ups in various locations
on the East Side. Groundwork has a focus on food justice and would like to
see a community garden growing food in every neighborhood of the East
Side.39
In creating a clean and green program, it is important that the jobs pay
well and are linked to education and training. Youth and other workers
who care for lots can learn about the ecological and community benefits of
their work, and view it as meaningful public service and a career ladder.
Programs like Groundwork, the Massachusetts Avenue Project, and PUSH
offer excellent examples of making caring for land a quality job. All PUSH
Buffalo jobs start at $15 per hour or more, and PUSH employees learn
how their work makes an impact: for example, how polluted stormwater
affects the health of neighborhood residents who fish in the Niagara River.
Bryana DiFonzo at PUSH notes that the workers are proud to be caring
for the neighborhood where they live and gaining the knowledge to do so
effectively.40
Half of the city’s
GREEN AFFORDABLE HOUSING
renters are paying
Perhaps Buffalo’s most pressing need is for green, affordable housing (the
federal government defines housing as “unaffordable” if it costs more than
unaffordable housing
30 percent of a household’s income). Half of the city’s renters are paying costs, and roughly
unaffordable housing costs, and roughly one third are paying over 50 one third are paying
percent of their income for their housing.41 The consequences of this
housing crisis are dire. Over 5,000 people in Erie County experience
over 50 percent of
homelessness each year.42 Buffalo has one of the highest eviction rates in their income for
the nation, with roughly 13 percent of renting households facing a court- their housing.
filed eviction in a given year – nearly all for nonpayment of rent. As
16
documented in the PPG report, Evicted in Buffalo, homelessness and forced

moves wreak havoc with employment, education, health, and public safety,
imposing grave costs on the community and on local governments.43
Buffalo’s housing is old and in poor repair, a complicated problem

resulting from decades of disinvestment in neighborhoods, lack of capital
available to homeowners, and more recently, speculation and absentee
landlords. Buffalo has the oldest housing stock of any major city, with 67.3
percent of units built in 1939 or earlier.44 Poor housing conditions such as
dampness, dust, draftiness, and pest infestation exacerbate asthma, which
disproportionately affects people of color in high poverty neighborhoods.45
These health-harming conditions contribute to Buffalo having one of the
highest levels of lead exposure in the nation.46 Children in Buffalo’s
neighborhoods of color are 12 times more likely to have elevated blood
lead levels than those in predominantly white neighborhoods.47
The affordable housing developed to meet this need must be green, for two
reasons. The first is the planetary climate emergency, which should take
priority in any consideration of public policy. The negative impacts of
climate change hurt poor communities of color the hardest.48 This means
that preventing climate change is a critical racial equity and economic
equity issue. Residential buildings are Buffalo’s greatest source of
greenhouse gas emissions, contributing 34 percent of the city’s total,
well ahead of industrial uses (24 percent), commercial establishments (20
percent), and personal vehicles (14 percent).49 Green housing is a critical
part of any strategy to bring the city to climate neutrality and to safeguard
frontline residents--those most impacted by climate change, racism, and
economic exclusion.
The second reason for green housing is that high energy bills make housing In Erie County,
unaffordable. Roughly three fourths of Buffalo’s renters pay their own energy costs
utility bills.50 Given cold winters, poorly insulated housing, and New York represent 76.6
State’s high electricity prices, these bills are a major burden.51 In Erie
County, energy costs represent 76.6 percent of household income for those percent of
at or below 50 percent of the federal poverty level.52 Energy efficiency is a household income
vital anti-poverty tool. for those at or below
Green housing is more affordable than non-sustainable housing. A true and 50 percent of the
comprehensive cost/benefit analysis—one that measures not just the costs federal poverty level.
of building or rehabbing a home, but also the costs of operating, repairing,
and, eventually, recycling or demolishing it—shows this to be true.53 Once
health costs to residents and impacts on society at large are factored in, the
case for green housing is overwhelming.
One example of a green building technique is geothermal heating, which

is up to 65 percent more efficient than conventional HVAC and tends
to repay its higher upfront costs within five to ten years.54 Western New
York is already seeing the potential for geothermal in affordable housing.
17
The Lockport Housing Authority (LHA) won the New York Geothermal
Organization’s GeoStar Top Job competition in 2017 for converting its
Autumn Gardens complex (72 units) to geothermal energy, making it the
third public housing project in the state with geothermal. The Housing
Authority estimates a reduction in energy consumption of 40 percent
from the project, with cost savings of 50 to 75 percent. The new system
also provided affo dable air conditioning in the summer, saving residents
charges for renting window units for their apartments.55 Vacant land can
be useful for geothermal systems: PUSH Buffalo s Net Zero House, which
produces nearly all its own energy with solar photovoltaic power and solar
hot water heating, took advantage of the vacant lot next door to install a
geothermal system.
In 2020 New York State passed the Climate Leadership and Community
Protection Act (CLCPA), which requires zero-emission electricity by 2040
and an 85 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050; under the law,
at least 35 percent of the benefits of clean energy and energy efficiency
must go to disadvantaged communities. The Climate and Community
Investment Act (CCIA), currently under consideration by the state
legislature, would help implement the CLCPA by raising $15 billion per
year from carbon pollution fees to help communities adapt to climate
change impacts and make a just transition to renewable energy. This state
legislation could present unprecedented opportunities to create green
affordable housing in Buffalo, and it is important that Buffalo be ready to
act on it.
PUSH Buffalo s Green Development Zone offers a case study in the

benefits and feasibility of green affordable housing created on properties
that were once abandoned. PUSH has created over 100 units of energy-
efficient housing. PUSH’s work, rooted in intensive community planning
and organizing, has involved mostly gut rehabs of abandoned buildings
and new construction on formerly vacant lots. PUSH is currently
developing 49 additional units on 12 sites with no fossil-fuel infrastructure
– using net-zero techniques such as photovoltaic energy and heat pumps.56
PUSH is hoping to do all metal roofs, which are more durable and
sustainable, and more cost-effective over the long run, but as of yet it lacks
the upfront capital.57 One cost barrier is that the City is charging PUSH
fair market value ($405,900) for the 11 vacant lots it is buying. This
example demonstrates how lower cost for land acquisition could translate
into greener housing.
18
Solar Panels on Roof of Net Zero House (Photo from PUSH Buffalo)
Other regions in the country are embracing the idea of net-zero affordable The City of
housing, sometimes using vacant lots to site it. In a project called Sheridan
Providence is
Small Homes, the City of Providence is creating five net-zero homes with
rooftop solar panels that supply more energy than they are expected to creating five
consume. It is a pilot for future projects, as the City has identified 250 net-zero homes on
vacant, tax-reverted lots that might be suitable for similar redevelopment.
formerly vacant lots,
The homes will sell for around $140,000, roughly half the construction
cost, which is a typical level of subsidy for affordable housing projects. The and it has identified
homes will include triple-glazed windows, 11-inch thick walls, electric heat 250 more lots
pumps and air exchange systems, and highly insulated roofs, and will be
suitable for green
sited to maximize solar gain. The development will be a condominium,
with joint ownership of the solar panels.58 Appendix A details more affordable housing.
examples of net-zero affordable housing, including a Habitat for Humanity
eco-village in Wisconsin and net-zero public housing in Illinois.
Buffalo’s housing strategy should include two complementary elements. One

is to create scattered-site buildings where it makes sense to rehab existing
buildings or do infill on isolated vacant lots. The second is to develop
affordable, green communities on larger parcels of vacant or mostly-vacant
land. The two strategies can be blended, as in PUSH’s Green Development
Zone or Cleveland’s EcoVillage, to take existing neighborhoods with high
vacancy levels and turn them into larger green communities.
Rehab and infill is an important strategy for several reasons. Rehab is

generally more sustainable than new construction, because using existing
materials is more efficient than throwing them away and drawing on raw
materials. Rehab and infill can also preserve and complement the historic
character of Buffalo’s neighborhoods, with their high-quality architecture
and dense, walkable development patterns. Unfortunately, state funding for
19
affordable housing comes with restrictions and requirements that can make
rehab prohibitively expensive, and, until they are reformed, will continue to
push developers toward new construction.
But multi-unit development on vacant lots offers some unique advantages,

as well. Development costs are often lower for multi-unit developments.
Certain technologies, such as photovoltaic panels and geothermal heating,
are easier and cheaper to do at a larger scale and on larger parcels. Larger
developments also offer the opportunity for integrating community
gardens, urban farms, public art, recreational facilities, and other
amenities. A larger development can create a naturally more cohesive and
resilient community of neighbors able to share resources, skills, and tools
– something that will be increasingly important as the climate emergency
generates more extreme weather events and heat waves. Buffalo has large
parcels of vacant land in neighborhoods that are bikeable and walkable,
close to public transit lines, and near to downtown and other job centers.
Green communities can be structured in any number of ways and may
include homeownership and/or rental housing. They may or may not
include shared ownership through condominiums, co-ops, or other means.
Cleveland EcoVillage Townhomes (Photo from GreenCityBlueLake) Cleveland’s

EcoVillage
The Cleveland EcoVillage offers a compelling example for Buffalo.
includes Aspen
Located near public transit and a community center, the EcoVillage
represents an entire neighborhood of both existing and new housing, with Place, a 40-unit
schools, historic churches, and parks. It includes the city’s first LEED- affordable housing
Platinum home and its first permanent tiny homes. In 2019 the EcoVillage
development
added Aspen Place, a 40-unit affordable housing development immediately
adjacent to the transit station. In addition to the affordable rent, each immediately adjacent
resident receives a free transit pass each month.59 to the transit station.
20
One promising housing type not yet seen in Buffalo is affordable cohousing.
Cohousing can be defined as an “intentional collaborative community
where the residents own or rent fully equipped, self-contained private
homes or apartments. The compact physical design fosters increased
interaction between residents by incorporating extensive common facilities,
including a community center (common house), pedestrian walkways,
playgrounds, community gardens and open spaces.”60
Cohousing developments are typically planned, owned, and managed by Cohousing is

their residents. Cohousing is naturally more affordable because it involves
shared amenities, resources, and skills, which makes it cheaper both to buy
naturally more
a unit and to live in one. In addition to supporting each other, residents affordable because
often support their surrounding neighborhoods – for example, by making it involves shared
their common rooms available for neighborhood meetings and events.
amenities,
resources, and
skills, which makes it
cheaper both to buy
a unit and to live in
one.
Troy Gardens: Affordable Cohousing with Community Garden

(Photo from Professor Samina Raja)
Increasingly, cohousing developments are designed to include affordable

housing and, in some cases, rental housing. Petaluma Avenue Homes, for
example, in Sebastapol, California, is a rental cohousing development with
forty-five units situated around two courtyards; it has a common garden,
common terrace, and a 3,100 square-foot common house.61 Boulder,
Colorado now has two cohousing developments where 40 percent of the
units are deed-restricted for people with low incomes. At Troy Gardens, a
cohousing development on a community land trust in Madison, Wisconsin,
a majority of the units are affordable.62 Closer to Buffalo, EcoVillage
Ithaca is adding a new neighborhood of 40 small homes that will be
affordable, green, passive-solar, energy-efficient, and suitable for aging-in-
place.63
21
Unlike many other cities, Buffalo does not devote any of its property tax
dollars to affordable housing, nor has it passed an inclusionary zoning law
that would require developments of a certain size to include a portion of
affordable units (although the City has recently negotiated for affordable
housing in several of its land sales). For the most part, the City’s support
for affordable housing has been limited to serving as the pass-through
for federal affordable housing programs such as HOME Investment
Partnerships, Emergency Solutions Grants, and Housing Opportunities
for People with AIDS. These federal funds are quite small. The City’s
2020 Action Plan lists $3,342,830 for HOME, $1,204,344 for ESG, and
$819,189 for HOPWA.64
Most affordable housing funding used in Buffalo com s from the New York If the City donates
State Department of Housing and Community Renewal (HCR), generally
through competitive grant applications. Importantly, applicants win points land for affordable
for financial support from local government – including below-market housing projects,
land transfers. Thus, Buffalo could draw more funding to the region, they will be more
and significantly leverage its investments, by doing more below-market
transfers. Transferring properties for $1 does more than remove a cost competitive in
barrier and leverage state and federal dollars. It also aids the nonprofit applying for state
developers by eliminating a major uncertainty – the price of the land. It is affordable housing
difficult to plan developments and apply for funding without knowing
whether the City will agree to sell, and, if it does, what price it will charge. grants.
The City’s property inventory is a critical asset, especially when compared
with the private market. First, it is a large inventory held by a public body.
For an affordable housing developer, that means that instead of searching
for vacant lots, trying to locate their owners, and making them an offer
with no way of knowing how it will be received, the developer should be
able to look through the City’s inventory and pick out lots with listed
prices. But this model depends on the City making it easy to find and
acquire properties through a clear, transparent process.
Land acquisition is an important cost barrier in affordable housing, and

one that is becoming increasingly expensive in Buffalo as the housing
market continues to heat up. Perhaps the easiest way for the City to aid
affordable housing without raising taxes or moving money from other line
items would be for the City to donate some of its massive land inventory
for that purpose.
Habitat for Humanity’s Buffalo affiliate leverages volunteer labor, sweat

equity, and donations to provide homeownership opportunities and help
close the wealth gap between whites and people of color. Habitat invests
tens of thousands of dollars into each home to make it affordable to a
purchaser with a low income. Habitat families build equity in their home
by paying a monthly zero interest mortgage over 30 years. A Shared
Equity Agreement splits the profits when the homeowner sells the home
22
before 30 year mortgage is paid off. The family receives half to build their
family’s wealth, and Habitat receives half to reinvest in the next affordable
home it builds.65
Habitat for Humanity Buffalo Constructing Home in Fruit Belt (Photo from WGRZ)
Habitat has completed roughly 327 homes in Buffalo, roughly two-thirds Habitat has
gut rehabs and one-third new construction.66 Approximately 200 of the
Habitat houses are on Buffalo’s East Side, nearly all on land purchased
completed roughly
from the City.67 Whereas in earlier years, the City commonly sold Habitat 327 homes in
abandoned buildings and vacant lots for $1, in recent years, the City has Buffalo, roughly
charged substantially more. Of the 27 properties purchased or being
purchased from the City from 2018 to 2020, Habitat paid the City prices
two-thirds gut rehabs
ranging from $1,300 to $18,000, for a total cost of $171,138, and an and one-third new
average cost of $6,582 per parcel.68 construction.
Habitat for Humanity House at 36 Barry St.

(Photo from Habitat for Humanity Buffalo)
23
Given the City’s strong interest in expanding homeownership, especially

for people of color, in stabilizing blighted neighborhoods, and in returning
vacant properties to the tax rolls, it seems counterproductive for the City to
charge more than $1 for these properties. For example, the City owned a
home at 36 Barry Street that it was set to demolish. In other words, it had
negative value to the City, which pays an average of roughly $20,000 to
demolish a house. Yet the City charged Habitat $9,000 for the property.69
Habitat rehabbed it, and it is now appraised at $210,000, making it a
good long-term source of property tax revenue for the City.70 It would be
cost effective for the City to sell such properties for $1 to Habitat or other
non-profit developers and also provide grant funding of up to $20,000
for their rehab, thus minimizing its demolition bills and maximizing its
property tax revenues, while also providing much needed affordable
housing for its residents.
Habitat Milwaukee Homes in Washington Park (Photo from Milwaukee Magazine)
The City of Milwaukee, with a poverty rate of 25 percent and fiscal

challenges comparable to those of Buffalo, recognizes the logic of investing
In 2020 the City of
in Habitat.71 In 2020 it sold 19 lots to its local Habitat affiliate for $1 Milwaukee sold
each, while also contributing $50,000 to the project from its affordable 19 lots to its local
housing trust fund.72 This Habitat project involves building 40 homes in
the Harambee neighborhood. Habitat Milwaukee has found success in
Habitat affiliate
clustering homes to increase their impact on neighborhoods. It is also for $1 each, while
building or rehabbing 100 homes in the Midtown neighborhood, after also contributing
completing 225 new homes in the Washington Park neighborhood, where
it reports a 46 percent reduction in crime on the blocks where the homes
$50,000 to the
were built.73 In addition to the City of Milwaukee, Habitat Milwaukee project from its
has received significant support from local corporate sponsors. With more affordable housing
support from the City, banks, and corporate donors, Habitat Buffalo could
undertake the kind of large-scale projects that Milwaukee is doing.
trust fund.
24
COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS

Community land trusts are a valuable tool for creating and preserving
affordable housing. A community land trust is a private, nonprofit
corporation that acquires and retains ownership over plots of land, while
selling the housing on that land. (Land trusts are also used for community
gardens and other purposes, as we will discuss later in this report.) Land
trusts market their housing to low and moderate income households
and sell homes at below-market prices. To keep these homes affordable,
purchasers must agree to resale restrictions. In other words, the sale price
is capped at a certain level of profit, so that the sellers can make a profit,
but the house remains affordable for the next buyer.
Land trusts are based on the value of stewardship: the careful, responsible
management of resources. To become stewards of their neighborhoods,
communities must control land and decide collectively how best to use it.
Such stewardship prevents the accumulation of landholdings in the hands
of a few absentee landlords, who may privilege profit over the public good.
The first incorporated land trust was New Communities, established in

1969. The brainchild of southern civil rights activists, New Communities
enabled Georgia sharecroppers and activists to acquire 5,735 acres of land
and put it into trust.74 By 2014, there were 260 community land trusts in
the U.S.75 They tend to share two key characteristics. They are private,
nonprofit corporations whose members live in the service area; and the
trusts’ members elect the majority of their governing boards, ensuring
community control of the land trust’s operations.76
One famous example is the Dudley Neighbors land trust, founded in 1984 In Boston, the
in Boston, Massachusetts. Led by residents on Dudley Street, Dudley
Neighbors established community control over 1,300 parcels of Dudley Neighbors
abandoned land in the Roxbury neighborhood. Through the acquisition community land
and management of these lands, Dudley Neighbors redeveloped a once trust controls over
blighted neighborhood without displacing its long-term residents. As of
2014, Dudley Neighbors oversaw 225 units of affordable housing (96 1,300 parcels of
homeowner, 77 cooperative, and 52 rental), as well as a playground, a formerly abandoned
mini-orchard and community garden, an urban farm/greenhouse, and land in the Roxbury
community non-profit office space.77
neighborhood.
Community land trusts offer a more secure way to build and pass on
wealth through home equity. Because of the way they build community
and work with their homeowner-members, land trusts have dramatically
lower rates of delinquency and foreclosure than conventional homes.78
This is particularly important for homeowners of color, whose wealth was
devastated by predatory lending and the Great Recession that it triggered.
African Americans in the United States lost one half of their wealth in the
Recession due to decreased homeownership and unemployment.79 Yet,
during this same housing crisis, land trust loans were four times less likely
25
than conventional loans to be seriously delinquent and eight times less During the Great
likely than conventional loans to be in the foreclosure process. Land
trust support structures—like financial counseling and payment Recession, homes
assistance—likely played a significant role in this achievement.80 in community land
trusts were eight
times less likely
than conventional
loans to be in the
foreclosure process.
Young Advocate for the Fruit Belt Community Land Trust (Photo by Harper Bishop)
Residents of Buffalo’s Fruit Belt neighborhood have long worried about

The Fruit Belt
the threats of gentrification, displacement, and land speculation due to
their proximity to the burgeoning Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Community Land
Analyzing their predicament, they saw opportunity in what had been a Trust is working to
severe problem: the fact that the City owned over 200 vacant lots in their
create 50 units of
neighborhood. Wisely, the City had declared a moratorium on the sale of
those properties until a neighborhood plan was formed. After a careful affordable housing
review of potential strategies, residents created the Fruit Belt Community in single-family
Land Trust, whose mission is “to create permanently affordable housing
homes and duplexes
and generate community wealth through collective ownership of land
in the historic Fruit Belt neighborhood.”81 In September 2020, the Land on 27 vacant lots to
Trust broke ground on its first project: two Habitat for Humanity homes be acquired from
on formerly vacant lots bought from the City.82 The Land Trust is working
the City.
with another nonprofit developer to bring 50 units of affordable housing
in single-family homes and duplexes on 27 vacant lots to be acquired from
the City.83
The City should support land trusts and other efforts toward community
control and long-term affordability – not just with allocations of free or
low-cost land, but also with funding for staffing, operations, outreach, and
education, to ensure that they reach their maximum potential.
26
COMMUNITY GARDENS
Buffalo’s vacant land policy should include steadily expanding its network
of community gardens. Research on community gardens has shown that
they have many benefits, not just for the gardeners but for the
surrounding neighborhoods, the cities, and the planet.
ASTHMA PREVALENCE BY SELECTED DEMOGRAPHICS, 2008-2010
Source: CDC/NCHS, Health Data Interactive and National Health Interview Survey
27
Community gardens aid the environment and public health in many ways.
They improve air and soil quality, and, by adding vegetation, reduce the
Community gardens
“heat island” effect that makes cities dangerously hot in summers.84 These improve air and
impacts are particularly important for people with low incomes and people soil quality, and, by
of color, who are more likely to live in neighborhoods with bad air and
soil quality due to the systemic racism and redlining outlined earlier in the
adding vegetation,
report. For example, people with low incomes and people of color have reduce the “heat
much higher rates of asthma than those found among whites and people island” effect
with high incomes.
that makes cities
Gardens improve water quality by soaking up stormwater and keeping it dangerously hot in
out of combined sewer systems. They increase the biodiversity of plants
and animals, attracting beneficial soil microorganisms, insects, birds,
summers.
reptiles, and animals. They help protect birds and butterflies by providing
food, resting spaces, and protection along migratory flight paths. Gardens
reduce waste through their use of composting.85 Finally, they reduce the
pollution that occurs in producing, packaging, cooling, and transporting
produce over long distances.
Buffalo’s Food Deserts: Locations of Supermarkets and Farmers’ Markets

(Map from New England Complex Systems Institute)
28
Community gardens promote public health. They increase access to

affordable fresh foods, something particularly important in areas such
as Buffalo’s East Side, which are considered “food apartheid” due to their
lack of full-service grocery stores resulting from discriminatory economic
and planning policies.86 Buffalo’s Black residents are six times more likely
than whites to live in a neighborhood without access to a grocery store.87
Community gardeners tend to share food with family members, friends,
neighbors, and people in need, improving nutrition and food security for
whole communities, particularly in times of crisis such as the COVID-19 In a survey of
pandemic. For example, Seattle’s community gardeners donated 17 tons Buffalo's community
of fresh, organic produce to local food banks and hot meal programs in gardeners,
2018 alone.88 In a survey of Buffalo’s community gardeners, 48 percent of
produce was used for household consumption; 35 percent was shared with 48 percent of
neighbors, friends and family; and 10 percent was donated.89 The produce was used
gardeners grew an average of 11 percent of the food they consumed, with for household
some gardeners growing as much as half of their food.90
consumption;
Buffalo’s community gardens have proven particularly important for 35 percent was
its large refugee population. In addition to high rates of poverty and
difficulties acclimating to radically different environments, refugees often shared with
cannot find the foods they prefer in local stores, and community gardens neighbors, friends,
offer a way to grow their own. and family; and
A small garden produces a surprising amount of food. According to 10 percent was
researchers, a 10x10 meter plot can provide most of a family’s yearly donated.
vegetable needs.91 Every $1 invested in a community garden plot yields
approximately $6 worth of vegetables.92 Money saved on groceries is
money that can be spent on other critical needs such as housing, utilities,
and healthcare, further reducing poverty and its impacts.
Gardens promote nutrition in many ways. Gardeners eat fewer sweets and
packaged foods, as they become more knowledgeable about good food
and gain easy access to it.93 Community gardeners eat significantly more
fruits and vegetables than both home gardeners and non-gardeners, and
56 percent of community gardeners meet national recommendations to
consume fruits and vegetables at least 5 times per day, compared with 37
percent of home gardeners and 25 percent of non-gardeners.94 Home-
grown vegetables and fruits can be more nutritious than those trucked
long distances over prolonged time periods. For example, it has been
shown that a 5 to 10 day transportation and storage lag between
production and consumption leads to losses of 30 to 50 percent in some
nutritional constituents.95
Gardening is also good exercise, particularly for older residents and people
with low incomes who may lack access to affordable and safe recreational
29
activities. Research proves that gardening correlates to reduced risk for

obesity, heart disease, and diabetes,96 three of the most potent chronic
illnesses among people of color and people with low incomes in
Buffalo.97 It is also good for mental health, as productive time spent in a
green environment relieves stress, increases social interactions, and
provides feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment.98 Having access
to community gardens could be especially helpful for folks with low-
incomes as the economic stress associated with being poor is linked with
a higher risk of mental health challenges.99
Cambridge Avenue Gardeners

(Photo by Grassroots Gardens)
Grassroots Gardens in Buffalo (Map from GGWNY)
Finally, community gardens build community in several important ways.

They provide job and entrepreneurial skills.100 They offer safe, appealing
places to gather, bringing residents together to improve their
neighborhoods, decrease crime, and find common purpose. Community
gardens in inner cities reduce crime, trash dumping, juvenile delinquency,
fires, and violent deaths.101 They enhance a whole city’s morale and help
reverse disinvestment by turning neglected lots into assets.
Buffalo has 110 community gardens in a network supported by Grassroots

Gardens of Western New York, which was founded as an all-volunteer
effort in the early 1990s and has steadily grown since then. At first, its
main functions were to supply a master lease with the City, a blanket
30
insurance policy, technical expertise, and, when available, materials to

community gardens. Today its scope has expanded to include a land trust,
community organizing, nutritional education, food justice, and more.
Importantly, 77 percent of Grassroots Gardeners are growing food, often
in neighborhoods that have been denied access to full-service grocery The lead gardeners
stores.102 The lead gardeners in the network are roughly 50 percent
African American, 60 percent seniors, and 70 percent women.103 About
in the Grassroots
one-third of the gardens are located at or near public schools and unite Gardens network are
students, teachers, and neighbors to tend for them. Grassroots also has a roughly 50 percent
therapeutic garden program with gardens at a juvenile detention facility
and two other sites. Nearly all of Buffalo’s community gardens belong to
African American,
the Grassroots network, which means that they can all count on support 60 percent seniors,
and that, if a group stops gardening a plot, Grassroots actively recruits and 70 percent
other gardeners to take it on.
women.
The Cambridge Avenue Garden on the East Side of Buffalo, near Main
Street and Best Street, is a good example of the impacts of gardening.
Residents of a block gathered together after active drug dealing in an
abandoned house had led to two murders on the block. They formed a
new block club and, as their first project, created a garden in a vacant lot
next to the drug house. According to garden co-founder Mary Hardy,
following constant activity in the garden and the assertion of community
control, the people selling drugs left the house and did not return, and the
block became much safer, while gaining a new food source and a site for
exercise, stress relief, and community building.104
Pelion Community Gardens (Photo by Grassroots Gardens)
Pelion Community Garden is a school garden affiliated with City Honors

High School. The gardeners transformed four large vacant lots into a
bustling, hands-on learning garden available to the 1,100 youth who
attend the school as well as nearby neighbors. Grassroots Gardens is
concerned about the loss of Pelion through potential sale of its land,
given the development pressure on the Fruit Belt neighborhood. For over
six years, Grassroots Gardens and the school have asked the City to
transfer the land to the Buffalo Public Schools, but the City has yet to act.
31
The Victoria Avenue Community Garden on Buffalo’s upper East Side

was started by Gerldine Wilson and the Victoria Avenue Block Club in
2012. Just as she was starting the garden, Ms. Wilson’s brother was
murdered. She says, “I found it was a place I could go and really work my
grief. I had gotten counseling, but the garden did for me what nothing else
could do.” Ms. Wilson is now the co-facilitator of Grassroots Gardens’
Grief in the Gardens program, which offers workshops and community
events connecting gardening to adaptive grieving.
Gerldine Wilson at the Victoria Avenue Community Garden (Photo by Grassroots Gardens)
One of the biggest challenges for community gardens is land security.

Often, they are located on publicly-owned land which may be sold for
other uses if the city so chooses – at the end of the lease term, or, in some
cases, upon notice even within the lease term. As a result, many cities are
turning to land trusts to preserve gardens and incentivize more gardening.
In Boston, 61 community gardens out of the roughly 175 in the city are
owned by a land trust and thus permanently protected.105 The City of
Baltimore transfers publicly-owned lots that meet certain criteria for $1 to
the Baltimore Green Space land trust.106 In Pittsburgh, Grow Pittsburgh The City of Baltimore
and Allegheny Land Trust have launched a joint venture, Three Rivers transfers publicly-
Agricultural Land Initiative, using the community land trust model to
provide long-term security for community gardens and urban farms.107 owned lots that meet
its criteria for $1 to
In 1996 the City of Chicago, joined by the County and Parks District,
created a non-profit land trust, NeighborSpace, and began transferring the Baltimore Green
vacant lots to it for $1 for permanent use as gardens. NeighborSpace Space land trust.
now stewards 109 gardens.108 In a recent example, the City transferred a
valuable large lot, a former factory site, to NeighborSpace for $1 after local
32
residents raised fears that potential luxury condo development on the site
would gentrify their neighborhood and price them out. NeighborSpace will
consult with local residents about how to join the new lot with the existing
El Paseo Community Garden adjacent to it.109
El Paseo Community Garden, Chicago (Photo from Block Club Chicago)
In St. Louis, Gateway Gardens has 140 community gardens in its network,
80 school and youth gardens, and a 2.5-acre farm on publicly owned land
that provides therapeutic horticulture and a jobs training program. Its land
trust includes 17 gardens.110 Grassroots Gardens
In Buffalo, Grassroots Gardens created a land trust in 2017 to begin created a land
improving land security for its gardens. Its initial goal is to gain ownership trust in 2017 to
of at least one garden in each of Buffalo s nine council districts,
prioritizing existing gardens on parcels with the highest risk of being sold.
protect gardens at
Thus far, the land trust has acquired two garden parcels, on York Street risk of being sold.
and Tyler Street, each of which had been privately owned. Unfortunately,
it has been stymied in most of its efforts to buy garden parcels from the
City. The City rejected three purchase offers without explanation and
without discussing potential prices. In March 2020, the City gave
preliminary approval
to sell a garden parcel on the West Side, and the sale is currently being
negotiated.111
In 2008, the City of Buffalo Common Council created a Community

Gardens Task Force to initiate dialogue around community gardening and
make recommendations. The Task Force obtained help from the
University at Buffalo Department of Urban and Regional Planning, which
produced a comprehensive Queen City Garden Plan in 2009.112 The City
has since implemented several of the Plan’s recommendations: creating a
33
Food Policy Council and including community gardens in the City’s

zoning and land use laws. The City also negotiated a new master lease
with Grassroots in 2019 with a longer term and better notice provisions.
Other recommendations, however, still need action:
• Support and expand the crucial role of Grassroots Gardens;
• Facilitate partnerships with other organizations;
• Provide staff and material support from the City of Buffalo, including
- Improved access to water
- A dedicated staff person in the City’s planning department to:
• Staff the Food Policy Council;
• Create and maintain a public data base of land available for
gardening;
• Facilitate the sale of publicly owned land;
• Offer community gardeners a right of first refusal if the parcel is to be
sold; and
• Create performance standards for community gardens.113
Other cities have been more vigorous in promoting community gardening.

Many provide funding, and many have donated land.
• Chicago has a similar number of gardens to Buffalo (roughly 130), but
supports them with $100,000 each from the county, city, and state.114 Detroit now has
• Detroit’s 2013 urban agriculture ordinance and other measures have led
to nearly 1,400 community gardens.115 nearly 1,400
• The City of Cleveland partnered with Cuyahoga County and Ohio community gardens.
State University to create the Summer Sprout Program, which provides
soil testing, seeds, starter plants, soil amendments, tilling services, raised
bed materials, educational outreach and support.116 Roughly one-third
of the Summer Sprout gardens are on publicly-owned land.117
• Seattle dedicated $2 million from its 2008-2013 Parks and Green Spaces
tax levy to community gardens, resulting in 24 new or expanded
gardens.118
• Over a five-year period, Boston directed $2.3 million in CDBG funds to
community gardens, and Mayor Menino’s administration transferred
more than 40 parcels to non-profit organizations for gardens.119 In 2016,
the City created a Community Preservation Fund, using a property tax
surcharge, which it is using to provide additional funds for gardens.
The City of Baltimore prioritizes community gardens. Its parks

department has a City Farms program which offers land to gardeners at
ten parks for $30 per year. It employs a community liaison who aids the
gardeners with training manuals, seminars, and bulletins. It celebrates
the gardeners each year with a City Farms Supper and prizes.120 Another
common barrier for community gardeners and urban farms is access to
water. Baltimore offers unlimited water access to community gardens for
$120 per year and provides up to $3,000 in support for the installation of
direct lines into garden sites through the Garden Irrigation Fund.121
34
The City of Buffalo provides water access to community gardens through

fire hydrants, but it is difficult for the gardeners, mostly seniors, to drag the
hoses the distance (one, two, or three blocks) to the hydrants, which
sometimes also involves laying the hose across a street. The best solution is
for the City to install spigots at the gardens, but so far only one of the
gardens has a spigot.
The only City funding Grassroots Gardens received in 2020 came from the
discretionary allocations of one councilmember, plus a small grant from
the Love Your Block program. The City has not prioritized community
gardens in its CDBG funding, as other cities have done. In addition to
providing funding through CDBG or other sources, the City should donate
land to the Grassroots Gardens land trust. This will reduce land acquisition
costs for gardeners, while also providing long-term land security, allowing
them to plan and improve their land to maximize its green and equitable
potential. At the same time, it will aid the City by increasing the value of
surrounding properties and thus rebuild the tax base, while also raising the
value of remaining publicly-owned lots.
Map showing the location of Grassroots

Gardens and the percentage of
households receiving Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Payments (SNAP,
commonly known as Food Stamps) (Map
from Using the Food System as a Lever
for Change Evaluation of the Buffalo
Community Hub Project. Food Systems
Planning and Healthy Communities Lab.
University at Buffalo)
35
URBAN FARMS
Urban farms, or market gardens, are similar to community gardens, but
they generally sell their produce. Urban farms bring many of the same
environmental and social benefits as community gardens: cleaning and
cooling the air, remediating soil, improving water quality by soaking up
stormwater, growing produce more sustainably, improving nutrition and
other health measures, off ring employment, and reclaiming vacant land
for productive purposes. Urban farms represent an important opportunity
to grow the sector of cooperatively-owned businesses in Buffalo, and, as
shown by the example of Massachusetts Avenue Project and others, they
are natural sites for workforce development.
Urban farming could supply a surprising amount of Buffalo s food if

promoted extensively. For example, an agricultural scientist has estimated
that Detroit could grow three fourths of its current vegetable consumption
and nearly half of its fruit by using bio-intensive methods on its vacant
parcels.122 Contrary to conventional wisdom, smaller farms produce more
food per acre than industrialized farms, and they use land, water, and fuel
more efficiently.123 Urban farmers have some unique advantages. They face
fewer insects, deer, and groundhogs; they can walk their plots in minutes
and address problems immediately; they can more easily harvest produce
at its peak; they can plant more densely; and they can nourish the soil
more frequently.124 But it is hard to assemble affordable land for an urban
farm, and urban farmers are often burdened with contaminated soils, high
taxes and fees, and difficult access to water, as well as certain cost
inefficiencies caused by operating at a small scale.
A Food Coop and

a Market Garden
The African Heritage Food
Cooperative, founded in 2016,
offers fresh produce at affordable
prices in areas considered food
deserts. It has one store in Niagara
Falls and is planning a second in
the Fruit Belt neighborhood of
Buffalo. It also owns a property at
132 Edison Avenue, where it
grows produce and herbs through
its Each One Teach One Urban
Gardening Program.
Photo from WBLK
36
In Buffalo, the number of urban farms has grown from less than five to
over 15 in the last ten years.125 These farms often collaborate with each
other, and they vigorously promote public and environmental health.
Over 30 urban growers and agricultural professionals have united in
the Greater Buffalo Urban Growers (GBUG) coalition to advocate for
policy improvements. In February 2020 a large group of urban farmers
and gardeners signed GBUG’s Growers’ Pledge committing to safe and
sustainable practices, including 5 Loaves Farm, African Heritage Food
Coop, Brewster Street Farm, Common Roots Urban Farm, Flat #12
Mushrooms, Grassroots Gardens, Gro-operative, Groundwork Market
Garden, Kubed Root, MAP Urban Farm, Promise Valley, Urban Fruits &
Veggies, Vertical Fresh Farms, Westside Tilth Farm and the Wilson Street
Urban Farm.126
As shown during the COVID-19 pandemic, localized food systems can be

more resilient in times of crisis and disruption. As the nation’s giant,
industrialized food systems crashed, urban farms, community garden,
farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture, and other smaller
food sources helped to fill the gaps.127 In Buffalo, many of them gathered
together in a coalition called Seeding Resilience to provide mutual aid,
coordination, and shared advocacy.128 This type of resilience will become
more important as climate change generates ever-increasing droughts,
storms, and food shortages.
A Food Pantry with

Local Produce
Feed Buffalo is a new food
pantry with a mission
to “heal, educate, and
transform food deserts into
thriving communities.”
It provides “access to free
locally-sourced, healthy,
and halal food in a loving,
judgement-free community
space.”
Photo from feedbuffalo.org
37
A cornerstone of Buffalo s urban farms is the Massachusetts Avenue

Project (MAP). MAP is a non-profit organization that was created by
neighborhood residents in 1992. Its mission is to create a local food system
that serves the needs and wants of the area’s population while promoting
local job opportunities. MAP prioritizes social change education as it
increases access to healthy, affordable food.
The MAP Urban Farm at 389 Massachusetts consists of 13 reclaimed MAP’s Growing
vacant lots. The farm includes garden beds, greenhouses, and a rainwater
catchment system.129 MAP now has a farmhouse with a commercial Green Program,
kitchen, cold storage space, and training space. Thanks to the expanded created in 2003, has
space, in 2019 MAP engaged 520 people at the farmhouse, including 170 generated 650 jobs
through growing/farming activities and 229 through food preparation,
cooking, and consumption-related activities.130 The MAP farm is also one for Buffalo’s youth.
of two permanent sites for the City of Buffalo s residential food scraps
recycling program; the scraps are composted for use at the farm. MAP’s
mobile food market is a SNAP and WIC approved retailer which gives
under-served neighborhoods access to fresh, affordable produce. It has
grown from six sites in 2016 to twelve in 2019.131
MAP Youth Working at Mobile Market (Photo from Massachusetts Avenue Project)
MAP’s Growing Green Program, created in 2003, has generated 650

jobs for Buffalo s youth.132 The youth grow, market and distribute organic
produce for the local community, restaurants, and businesses. 95 percent
of the high school seniors involved in Growing Green have graduated from
high school and continued onto higher education.133
38
In 2017, MAP and Grassroots Gardens created the Buffalo

Community Food Hub in order to:
• meet the food needs of low-income youth and families in Buffalo;
• advocate for policy in support of food system development; and
• increase the self-reliance of the community in providing for its own food
needs.
During the pandemic, MAP has been able to serve as a rapid-response
“aggregation hub” role, distributing produce from local farms to food
pantries.
Other cities are actively promoting urban agriculture. Washington DC has

an Office of Urban Agriculture that “works to increase food production in
the District of Columbia and support a more sustainable, equitable, and
resilient food system.” Pursuant to its Sustainable DC 2.0 Plan, the City
will put 20 more acres of land into cultivation by 2032, develop food-
producing landscaping on 5 acres of public space throughout all eight
wards, and develop and support school gardens and garden-based food
system education for public school students. DC offers a 90 percent tax
abatement for urban farmland and offers select publicly-owned parcels for
lease to farmers.134
In Rochester, Mayor Warren recently asked the City’s Office of

Community Wealth Building to establish RocCity HomeGrown, an urban
agriculture program to help families grow their own fresh fruits and
vegetables or create small food businesses. The City will create a database
of parcels suitable for community gardens and develop programs to
address startup costs and develop neighborhood markets.135
Baltimore has created an Urban Agriculture Plan, Homegrown Baltimore,

which “aims to increase production, distribution, sales and consumption of
food locally grown within Baltimore.” Its goals are:
• provide equitable access to healthy foods for all residents;
• support Baltimore’s gardeners, farmers and businesses;
• promote environmental sustainability; and
• utilize vacant space productively.136
Baltimore supports its urban farms by off ring fi e-year leases for publicly- Baltimore supports
owned land at only $100 per year, and by off ring a 90 percent property its urban farms by
tax reduction for privately-owned urban farms.137
offering five-year
Detroit passed an urban agriculture law in 2013 and is home to many leases for publicly
urban farms. Detroit’s largest urban farm is the seven-acre D-Town
Farm, operated by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, owned land at only
which grows 30 diff rent fruits and vegetables.138 Also in Detroit is the $100 per year.
Michigan Urban Farming Initiative, which describes itself as “America’s
fi st sustainable urban agrihood,” making agriculture the centerpiece of
39
a mixed-use urban development. This three-acre site includes a two-acre

urban garden, a 200-tree fruit orchard, and a children’s sensory garden.
It provides fresh, free produce to about 2,000 households within two
square miles of the farm. It is restoring a three-story-vacant building into
a LEED-Platinum Community Resource Center with two commercial
kitchens, educational programs, and event/meeting space, and developing
a healthy food café.139
In a neighborhood with large amounts of vacant land, the City of Chicago

actively invested in non-profit urban farms. It transferred land for The
Wood Street Farm to the non-profit organization Growing Home for $1
through a redevelopment agreement. It aided three other urban farms in
the neighborhood by testing, cleaning and preparing the sites and installing
water and fencing. Its Green and Healthy Neighborhood plan for the
area calls for three new urban farms, including one co-located with public
recreational facilities and one adjacent to a rails-to-trails walking path.140
Cleveland actively promotes and funds urban farming. It amended Cleveland’s

its Neighborhood Retail Assistance Program in 2008 to create the
Gardening for Greenbacks Program, which provides grants of $5,000 Gardening for
to urban farmers who pledge to farm for at least two years and sell their Greenbacks Program
crops for profit.141 In Cleveland, the public housing authority, Cuyahoga provides grants of
Metropolitan Housing Authority, jointly manages the Ohio City Farm
with Ohio City Incorporated. At nearly six acres, this is one of the nation’s $5,000 to urban
largest urban farms.142 Operated by public housing tenants (currently a farmers who pledge
team of six, all refugees, it supplies produce to a farm stand, a CSA with to farm for at least
200 members, and many local restaurants.143
two years and sell
their crops for profit.
Farmers at the Ohio City Farm (Photo from ohiocityfarm.com)
40
Boston actively encourages urban farming with a suite of policies and

programs. The City identifies publicly-owned parcels optimum for farming
and markets them to farmers. It publishes a guide on how to farm publicly-
owned parcels.144
Seedlings in MAP Greenhouse (Photo from Massachusetts Avenue Project)
The City of Buffalo's new zoning and land use law, the Green Code, did
a number of things for urban farming. According to a summary by the
Buffalo’s new Green
Greater Buffalo Urban Growers, the Green Code, along with other Code allows urban
recent City policy work: farms with on-site
• formally recognizes Market Gardens as sites where food, ornamental
crops, or trees are grown for sale to the general public;
market stands.
• outlines regulations that Market Gardens should follow in order to
ensure public health, safety, and welfare;
• recognizes and permits aquaculture/aquaponics, that is, the farming of
aquatic organisms such as fish, crus aceans, mollusks, and aquatic plants
under controlled conditions;
• allows for the sale of agricultural products, plants, eggs, and honey;
• allows on-site sales at a market stand for up to 10 hours per week;
• permits beekeeping;
• allows composting;
• allows chickens to be kept.145
41
Much more can be done to promote urban farming in Buffalo,

however. GBUG’s recommendations for further policy improvements
include the following.146
• Improve Water Access. Water is essential for urban food production

and is often a limiting factor for urban farms and gardens. Constructing
wells can cost thousands of dollars. Access to water via fire hydrants
requires equipment and installation and is currently limited to only non-
profit community gardens. The City of Buffalo can help with the
following measures:
- Establish reasonable rates for City water, through hydrants or other
means of access. Non-profit farms should get free water, and for-profit
farms should have access to lower, more reasonable rates than the
current fee structure provides.
- Allow for-profit farms to obtain permits for fire hydrant use.
- Reduce the cost of water-line installation with a grant program.
For some of Buffalo's farms, the cost of installing a water line and
connecting it to the municipal supply is a huge barrier. Current
estimates hover around $8,000. San Francisco offers a Community
Garden Irrigation Meter Grant Program with a one-time waiver
of up to $12,000 in SFPUC fees for the installation of a new dedicated
irrigation water service and meter for eligible projects to be
maintained for a minimum 10-year span.147
- Work with the Buffalo Sewer Authority to create a sewer bill credit for
urban farms. Urban farms improve the region’s water quality by
reducing storm water run-off. The Sewer Authority could grant a Municipalities such
credit to urban farms based on their permeable surface area.
• Create an Urban Agriculture Tax Credit, similar to those in
as Baltimore and
Baltimore, Washington DC, Montgomery County, and other regions. Washington DC have
• Make a User Fee Exemption or Provide Waste Hauling tax credits for urban
Services. Despite paying waste hauling, or “user” fees, market gardens
do not receive City of Buffalo waste hauling services, as they are deemed
agriculture.
“vacant lots.” This can be a major expense, especially since each
noncontiguous lot incurs a separate bill. Market gardens be exempt from
paying the user fee, or they should receive service. Scattered, non-
contiguous lots should receive a single user fee bill if they are being
managed under one entity. Many cities across the U.S. provide trash
service to market gardens and community gardens.148
• Improve Land Access. The City should identify a select number of
properties of suitable size, location, zoning, and soil quality, to set aside
for long-term farming use. It should then transfer them to non-profit
farms for no cost and to for-profit farms for reduced cost, using a mix of
long-term leases and permanent transfers.
In addition to GBUG’s recommendations, the City should also expand its

pilot composting program so that it offers urban farms more access to free
42
or discounted compost; this would also reduce the City’s garbage bill and
ecological footprint by encouraging more composting by households and
businesses. Lastly, the City should create a zoning category for agricultural
land and associated policies that actively encourage responsible farming,
rather than simply allowing it.
Youth Working at MAP Farm (Photo from Massachusetts Avenue Project)
TREES, POLLINATORS, GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE,

AND RENEWABLE ENERGY
In addition to clean and green treatments, community gardens, and urban
farms, there are many ways to green vacant lots to provide ecological and
public health benefits.
TREES
Cities like Buffalo can plant more trees on vacant lots and take more
advantage of the trees that already exist on them. Trees provide many
ecological services, including reducing air pollutants and greenhouse
gases; soaking up stormwater; remediating soil; offering habitat for insects
and birds; and decreasing the “heat island effect.”
A study of Roanoke, Virginia found that the trees on its vacant lots had
a value of $169 million to the city. Each year they store 97,500 tons of
carbon, valued at $7.6 million, remove 2,090 tons of carbon, valued
at $164,000, remove 83 tons of air pollutants, valued at $916,000, and
reduce residential energy costs by $211,000.149 Note that all this value
comes simply from existing trees, without a concerted effort to plant
more, and that it does not include the other social and public health
43
benefits that come from adding more greenery to a neighborhood.
Trees can also provide food through their fruit and nuts. Many cities now
have groups dedicated to planting and tending fruit trees in public spaces,
mapping them so that they can be easily found, and helping to harvest
and distribute their fruit. Examples include the Boston Tree Party and the
Portland Fruit Tree Project.150 The City of Milwaukee is partnering with
the Greater Milwaukee Foundation to bring fruit orchards to 15 vacant lots
on the city’s north side.151
POLLINATORS
The worldwide collapse in populations among birds, butterflies, bees, and Philadelphia’s
other pollinators has increased awareness of the critical role they play in
ecosystems and in human food production. In Western New York, the LandCare program
Pollinator Conservation Association is educating the public, planting has created 50
pollinator-friendly habitats, and working to establish “pollinator corridors” pollinator gardens
to help the pollinators as they move and migrate.152 Vacant lots can play a
critical role in providing pollinator habitat. In Philadelphia, the on vacant lots,
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has integrated pollinator protection typically with about
into its LandCare program, creating 50 pollinator gardens on vacant lots, 300 native plants in
typically with about 300 native plants in each garden.153
each garden.
Gardener at a PHS Pollinator Garden (Photo from Grid Magazine)
STORMWATER RETENTION
As a study of Buffalo has proven, vacant lots play a critical role in soaking
up stormwater and keeping it out of the combined sewer system.154 Why
is this important? Older cities like Buffalo tend to have combined sewer
systems, in which sanitary sewage flows through the same pipes as
stormwater and snowmelt. Unfortunately, sewage treatment plants were
typically designed only for dry days; when it rains, their capacity is quickly
44
overwhelmed, and, instead of being treated, raw sewage flows directly into
lakes and rivers, resulting in beach closures, ecological damage, and
Buffalo’s sewer
human illness. Buffalo s sewer system overflows an average of 69 times per system overflows an
year, putting 1.75 billion gallons of wastewater and untreated stormwater average of 69 times
into local waterways.155 Putting sewage into the water endangers swimmers
and people who fish. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
per year, putting
estimates that up to 3.5 million people get sick every year from swimming 1.75 billion gallons
in waters contaminated by sewer overflows.156 of wastewater and
These combined sewer overflows violate the federal Clean Water Act and untreated stormwater
state clean water laws, and so local sewer authorities must agree with the into local waterways.
EPA and the NYS Department of Environment and Conservation on
plans to reduce them. In Buffalo, advocacy from Buffalo Niagara
Waterkeeper persuaded the Buffalo Sewer Authority to embrace “green
infrastructure” techniques to soak up stormwater before it enters the sewer
system. The Sewer Authority’s 20-year long term control plan will spend
$380 million, of which 24 percent will go to green infrastructure.157
Green infrastructure can take many forms, including permeable

pavements, rain gardens, vegetative swales, infiltration trenches, green
roofs, planter boxes, rain barrels, downspout disconnection, and urban tree
canopies.158 Used correctly, green infrastructure can save taxpayer money
and yet create more jobs than traditional “gray” infrastructure techniques.
New York City estimates that its green infrastructure plan will reduce
sewer overflows by 2 billion gallons over 20 years while costing $1.5 billion
less than a purely “grey infrastructure” strategy.159 Philadelphia estimates
that its investment of $1.6 billion in improving its water quality will lead to
15,266 direct green collar jobs.160 Green infrastructure can also offer
a panoply of co-benefits to the environment and the community, such as
improving air quality, beautifying neighborhoods, reducing hot summer
temperatures, and conserving water.
PUSH Blue Installing a Rain Garden (Photo from PUSH Buffalo)
45
The benefits of green infrastructure are obvious in the PUSH Green

Development Zone, where the PUSH Blue team has been installing rain
gardens and other green infrastructure on vacant lots and residential
parcels. The work of PUSH Blue has generated well-paying, entry-level
jobs for disadvantaged residents; it has beautified the neighborhood; and it
has kept many gallons of stormwater out of the sewer system.161
The Buffalo Sewer Authority’s green infrastructure plan includes greening

streets and parking lots, disconnecting downspouts, encouraging rain
barrel use, and other strategies. The Authority engaged in a demonstration
project to green vacant lots after City demolitions of abandoned
structures, with funding from the NYS Environmental Facilities A pilot program by
Corporation and consultant support from Arcadis and Buffalo the Buffalo Sewer
Neighborhood Stabilization Corporation (PUSH Buffalo's development Authority created 53
arm). The initiative provided jobs for 53 people, including on-site training.
Most of these workers (64 percent) were from the city, and over half were jobs doing green
people of color. The project addressed 224 demolition sites, a total of 20.4 infrastructure work
acres.162 The City should combine its green infrastructure work with the on 224 vacant lots.
Sewer Authority with a new Clean and Green program to address all of its
publicly owned lots.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Larger vacant lots make a natural place for renewable energy installations,
such as solar arrays. A good example comes from Cleveland, where the
Hough Community Solar Garden will be a resident-owned array that can
power 50 homes in a historic African-American neighborhood.163 In
Detroit, the City used vacant land it owned to create a solar array that can
power 450 homes, combined with a small park and playground.164 PUSH
Buffalo's solar array on top of its School 77 building offers a local model
for community-owned solar that benefits tenants with low incomes.
Because tenants do not own their homes, they are typically unable to
benefit from solar energy. Community-owned solar reduces electricity bills
for tenants, making their housing more affordable.
PUSH Buffalo Crew Installing Community-Owned Solar Array on School 77

Building (Photo from Curbed.com)
46
PATHS FOR WALKING AND BIKING

Buffalo’s huge inventory of vacant land – both residential and
non-residential – creates many possibilities to make new paths for biking
and walking, which is particularly important in a city where so many
residents lack access to a car and to affordable recreation. In the Buffalo
Niagara region, approximately 56,000 households do not have a car.165
Moreover, research has shown that Buffalo’s least walkable neighborhoods
are precisely those communities of color with high rates of vacant land and
poverty – where access to cars is most limited and chronic health problems
are most severe.166 Increasing walkability is also a good investment for
cities, because it is proven to increase housing values and thus generate a
larger property tax base.167
A good example of a new path is the Western New York Land

Conservancy’s Riverline Trail, which, using an old rail line currently
owned by the NFTA, will stretch from the old DL&W terminal in
downtown to the Tesla factory in South Buffalo, offering natural beauty
and recreation to neighborhoods that have been plagued by years of
disinvestment.168 Building on projects like this, it would be possible to create
a network of “green fingers” through formerly vacant lots.
Cleveland has used its vacant lots to create three new paths.169 The Lucia
Greens Pathway Park, pictured here, used back-to-back vacant lots to make
A well-planned
a linear park connecting two parallel streets. A well-planned network of network of walking
paths such as these throughout Buffalo could increase walkability, aiding in and biking
public health and revitalization. It is crucial, of course, that such paths be
placed only in neighborhoods that welcome them, and that there is always
paths throughout
a feasible plan for their long-term maintenance. Buffalo could
increase walkability,
aiding in public
health and
revitalization.
Lucia Greens Pathway Park in Cleveland (Photo from Cleveland State University)
47
PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS

Despite its rich history of Olmsted parks, Buffalo remains significantly
under-parked, with parkland constituting only seven percent of the city’s
Parkland comprises
area. By contrast, Nashville, Pittsburgh, and Raleigh are 11 percent 7 percent of Buffalo’s
parkland; Omaha 12 percent; Philadelphia 14 percent; Cincinnati 15 area, compared to
percent; Minneapolis and St. Paul 16 percent; and New York City 20
percent.170 Research proves that urban parks provide significant
20 percent of New
economic, social, and environmental benefits to their regions. They York City’s.
increase property values in nearby neighborhoods, stimulate tourism,
lower health care costs, reduce stormwater management costs, and cut air
pollution costs by cleaning the air with vegetation.171 In Buffalo’s East Side,
which is particularly lacking in parks, there are many spots with enough
vacant parcels to create new public parks. Of course, creating and
maintaining a public park costs money, but the benefits listed above mean
that the public’s investment should be recouped through an increased
property tax base and decreased governmental costs, without even
considering the ecological and public health benefits.
Lawrence Street Mural (Photo from PUSH Buffalo)
Similarly, many parts of Buffalo suffer from a shortage of playgrounds,

meaning that many families have no safe place for their children to play
and get exercise. In its “State of Play” study of Western New York, the
Ralph C. Wilson Foundation found that only 16 percent of area youth get
the CDC-recommended one hour of exercise per day. It also found that
many City of Buffalo recreational facilities are old and need repair and
upgrade. It recommended an increase in pocket parks and mini-play
spaces in neighborhoods, noting that the Kensington, South Ellicott, and
Fillmore-Broadway areas on Buffalo’s East Side are at least a half mile
48
from the nearest play space. It advised seeking out local artists, gardeners,
and other activists to ensure that these parks respond to local needs and
goals.172 In July 2020, the Foundation announced the Play Everywhere
Design Challenge, with $1 million in grants for “unique play installations
in everyday locations across Western New York and Southeast Michigan
in order to address disparities in access to quality play spaces.”173 Building
on this initiative and converting vacant lots to playgrounds in targeted
neighborhoods will improve public health and quality of life while
building community cohesion and, with more activity and “eyes on the
street,” decreasing crime.
In some cases, it is possible to add vacant lots to existing parks. PUSH

Buffalo acquired vacant lots next to Massachusetts Avenue Park. As part PUSH Buffalo built a
of its community planning, it learned that residents wanted a handball handball court with
court and additional picnic tables at the Park. PUSH was able to add a public art mural on
them to its vacant lots, which became functionally part of the Park. The
mural on the back of the handball court is also an excellent example of vacant lots adjacent
integrating public art into vacant lot renewal. to a City park.
Lawrence Street Handball Court (Photo from Buffalo Rising)
49
PUBLIC ART
Buffalo now has one of the most vibrant public art
scenes in the nation, thanks in part to an innovative
partnership between the AKG Buffalo Art Museum,
Erie County, and the City of Buffalo. Vacant lots offer
many opportunities for art. One of the most famous
public art projects in the nation is the Heidelberg
Project in Detroit. When artist Tyree Guyton returned
to Heidelberg Street, where he had grown up, and
witnessed its decay and abandonment, he was moved
to begin cleaning up the lots and turn the
neighborhood into a massive art project in which
vacant lots became “lots of art” and abandoned houses
Tyree Guyton on Heidelberg Street
became “gigantic art sculptures.”174 (Photo from Heidelberg Project)
Another remarkable public art project is Mel Chin’s

Revival Field in St. Paul, MN. The artist used
bioremediation to help clean up a toxic Superfund site
in the city.175 Research proved that the six
“hyperaccumulator” plant species he used were able to
draw up and neutralize significant amounts of toxins
from the soil.176 Whether done by artists, gardeners, or
others, it is easy to imagine similar bioremediation
projects in Buffalo, where past industry as well as
leaded paint and gasoline pose significant soil pollution
threats to human health.
A local example of public art on a vacant lot was

“Tree,” a 32-foot wooden table, shaped like a tree,
created by artist Michael Beitz and placed by a Mel Chin’s Revival Field (Photo from melchin.org)
nonprofit called Art Farms on a vacant lot at Michigan
and Riley streets owned by the Michigan Riley urban
farm.177 The table was used for art classes, free lunch
programs, neighborhood picnics, and more. The table,
however, was constructed of a pine wood that began to
rot relatively quickly, and eventually it had to be
removed – showing the importance of durability and
long-term planning and funding for maintenance –
unless the art is designed to be temporary from the
start.
To make the most of public art’s potential, the City

should engage in community planning with
neighborhood residents, local artists, and local arts
organizations that are rooted in the communities
“Tree” at Michigan and Riley (Photo from Buffalo Rising)
50
with large numbers of vacant lots. Particularly when placing art in

residential neighborhoods, it is vital to follow the lead of the residents and
the artists and groups closest to them.
TEMPORARY AND “POP UP” USES

Not every use of a vacant lot need be permanent or long-term. Cities
across the country are exploring temporary and pop-up uses for their
vacant land. A good example comes from Flint, Michigan in May 2013,
when a vacant parcel, formerly a Chevrolet factory, became the site of
“Free City,” a public arts festival that encouraged residents to reimagine
the city and see vacant parcels as opportunities instead of eyesores – with
birding tours, gospel choir performances, dance parties, and even a fully
functional sauna.178
Philadelphia is the site for a 2011 project called the Porch. On a parking
strip next to the city’s Amtrak station, the Porch includes colorful patio
chairs, artist-designed planters, public art, a kiosk with information on
train departures and arrivals, and additional greenery. The project’s
directors experimented and collected data on site usage as they went,
modifying their ideas in response to the data.179
Flint Free City Public Art Festival (Photo from Flint Neighborhoods United)
The City of Buffalo has embraced the idea of creative, temporary uses
with its new Green Code. City planner Chris Hawley states that “given the
current economic climate, we see these [projects] as the highest and best
use for now... the benefits have been much more dramatic than chasing
after some corporate retailer. Sometimes the temporary can add much
more than those kind[s] of so-called permanent efforts.”180 It is easy to
imagine an annual contest for creative temporary uses of vacant parcels;
an annual “pop-up festival” on vacant parcels, and other ways to harness
the creativity of Buffalo’s residents. Such projects should adhere to criteria
of equity and sustainability and be rooted in the communities in which
they take place.
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Regulatory Framework and Planning

DISPOSITION POLICIES
Many localities around the country have passed laws and policies designed
to promote beneficial uses of publicly-owned land.181 These policies
include elements such as:
• evaluating public lands for suitability for affordable housing and
requiring that suitable lots be used for that purpose;
• giving affordable housing developers right of first refusal in sales of
public land;
• requiring that where public land is sold, a certain percent of housing
developed on it must be affordable;
• authorizing below-market sale of public land;
• prioritizing placement of affordable housing on public land near mass
transit, educational facilities, public libraries, and bike and pedestrian
paths.
King County, Washington passed Ordinance 12394 in 1996, requiring that King County,
any surplus parcels that are suitable for housing should be sold or leased
for the development of affordable housing. The County updates the Washington requires
surplus property list each year and offers suitable properties for that any surplus
development as affordable homes. In determining suitability it considers county parcels that
topography, zoning, and availability of utilities. For example, in its first
review in 1997, the County found that 52 of 750 surplus parcels had are suitable for
housing potential. By 2007, the ordinance had led to development of 400 housing must be
new affordable housing units.182 sold or leased for
In 2018, the State of Washington passed a law allowing cities to sell or the development of
lease surplus land at no or low cost for affordable housing development, so affordable housing.
that cities no longer needed to seek fair-market value for land.183 The
Seattle City Council then passed a resolution requiring city departments to
make affordable housing a priority when disposing of public land.184
Pursuant to this policy, when Seattle later sold the “Mercer MegaBlock”
for $143.5 million, it dedicated approximately $73 million of the proceeds
to affordable housing.185 This illustrates that even when publicly-owned
land is not appropriate for housing, it can be used to generate funds for
affordable housing.
San Francisco has a program called Public Land for Housing to review the
City’s portfolio of public sites for possible redevelopment as housing. This
program is designed to expand the city’s affordable housing stock, increase
the use of public transportation, and promote neighborhood
sustainability.186 The City amended its Surplus City Property Ordinance in
2002 to encourage the transfer of underutilized or surplus property for the
development of affordable housing. By 2015 the ordinance had led to the
creation of 150 affordable homes. In August 2020 the City approved the
52
Rendering of Balboa Reservoir Housing Development (Image from Curbed SF)
1,100 unit Balboa Reservoir housing project on publicly-owned land near

City College of San Francisco.187 Half of the units (550) will be affordable,
including 150 units aimed at educators.188 California also has a state law
requiring that affordable housing developers be given a right of first refusal
when public land is sold.189
New York City has a New Housing Marketplace plan, created in 2003,
under which the City actively considers the potential of all underutilized,
publicly owned sites for affordable housing. For example, the City
redeveloped vacant land that it owned in the Bronx into the mixed-income
La Central project, which includes 985 units, a new YMCA, an astronomy
lab, open space, 43,000 square feet of retail, a music studio, and two
health centers.190 Phase 2 of the project, begun in 2018, includes two high-
rises with 496 units, solar power, rooftop gardens, gray and black water
recycling, and natural gas co-generation. Also in 2018, the City announced
it had selected developers to build affordable housing on 87 publicly-
owned vacant lots, which could produce almost 500 affordable homes.191
Montgomery County, Maryland has developed a comprehensive county

land inventory and has facilitated mixed-income housing on multiple
Montgomery
County land holdings. The County also looks for opportunities to co-locate County’s laws include
housing with new government facilities. All capital improvement projects a preference for at
or County agency plans to redevelop or dispose of County-owned land are
required to assess the potential for affordable housing. The analyses must
least 30 percent
examine several factors, including financial feasibility and proximity to affordable housing
public transit, other public facilities, and existing affordable housing. The on public land.
County’s laws also include a preference for at least 30 percent affordable
housing on public land. Proposals for the redevelopment of County land
with less than 30 percent affordable housing are subject to greater scrutiny
from the County Council.192
Washington DC passed the Disposition of District Land for Affordable
53
Housing Amendment Act of 2014, which requires that all new multifamily
residential developments on city-owned surplus land include at least 20
percent affordable housing. The percentage rises to 30 percent for sites
within ½ mile of a Metrorail station, within ¼ mile of a streetcar line, or
within ¼ mile of a Priority Corridor Network Metrobus Route.193
1115 H Street, Washington DC (Photo from Loopnet.com)
An example of development on publicly-owned land in Washington is a 16-

unit, mixed-income, mixed-use development for first-time homebuyers,
known as 1115 H Street. Four of the 16 units were sold at prices affordable
to households earning between 50 and 80 percent of area median income.
The building won LEED Platinum certification with a green roof, triple-
glazed windows, high-efficiency heating/cooling systems, wiring for
potential electric car charging stations, and covered bicycle storage. Units
also come with a one-year “transit package” that includes a preloaded
transit card and complimentary memberships to local car-sharing and bike-
sharing services.194
DEED RESTRICTIONS Chicago Community

The City of Chicago created the Chicago Community Land Trust (CCLT) Land Trust uses
in 2006 to ensure that low- and moderate-income households gain access to
the local housing market. The CCLT, unlike most land trusts, does not keep
deed restrictions on
ownership of land parcels; instead, it uses covenant deeds to restrict the formerly vacant lots
sales of its properties. The CCLT’s deed restrictions require that housing requiring that
units be sold to an income-qualified buyer and that the price of the unit be
affordable based on local income and housing data.195 The CCLT is a non-
housing placed on
profit corporation, with a board of directors appointed by the mayor and them be
approved by the Chicago City Council. It is administered and staffed by affordable.
54
the Chicago Department of Housing. Once the CCLT acquires 200

homes, one-third of the board will consist of CCLT homeowners.196
As of April 2019, the CCLT had developed 99 homes. Particularly when

compared with other land trusts in Chicago, the CCLT is controversial
because it is controlled by City Hall rather than by community residents
and because, unlike all or nearly all other land trusts, it does not acquire
land; it only imposes deed restrictions on land owned by others.197
It does not create as much community building and mutual support as
a normal land trust. The City of Buffalo should consider first placing a
large portion, perhaps 50 percent, of its land under deed restrictions that
assure their beneficial use, and then undertaking the longer process of
transferring those parcels to community land trusts, community garden
land trusts, non-profit housing developers, urban farms, and other mission-
driven organizations.
LAND BANKS
Like many states, New York permits cities and counties to form land banks
for the purposes of buying, selling, leasing, and otherwise managing public
lands. These not-for-profit corporations are typically public authorities
that accumulate properties and rehabilitate them to improve
neighborhoods and generate tax revenue. To this end, land banks can
acquire properties that are vacant, abandoned, foreclosed, or tax
delinquent, and they have the power to set conditions on how the property
can be used. Land banks typically look to manage properties in the short
term, with the end goal being sale to private owners. As of January, 2018,
there were approximately 170 land bank programs in the U.S.198
One example is the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement Corporation

(BENLIC), a nonprofit corporation established by Erie County and
the City of Buffalo. BENLIC typically acquires properties through the
annual Erie County, City of Buffalo, City of Lackawanna, and City
of Tonawanda tax foreclosure auctions. Under state law, BENLIC can Buffalo Erie Niagara
acquire property at auction using a Priority Bid or “Super Bid;” in other
words, it can place a bid in the amount of back-taxes a property owes and
Land Improvement
automatically win it.199 Once it wins a property, BENLIC brings it up to Corporation is a land
code itself or through its Vacant to Value Program, in which a private bank that has begun
buyer will be held responsible by BENLIC to bring a property up to code.
If repair is not feasible, the building is demolished. Currently, BENLIC
selling lots at below-
sells nearly all its properties for fair-market value.200 It can, however, sell market prices for
for less than market value. In 2019-2020, BENLIC sold (or contracted to affordable housing.
sell) six properties to Habitat for Humanity: two lots with homes for
$7,500 each and four vacant lots for $500 each.201
BENLIC does not have equity, environmental sustainability, or affordable

housing in its mission and goals, and it does not have disposition guidelines
55
offering discounts for those uses.202 By contrast, Land Bank Twin Cities in
Minneapolis/St. Paul, which has acquired over 1,000 properties since its
inception, has as its mission: “We capture strategic real estate
opportunities to benefit people with low to moderate incomes, prioritizing
people of color and populations facing barriers.”203
Ethel T. Chamberlain House (Photo from Housing Visions)
Similarly, the land bank in Little Rock, Arkansas names providing

affordable housing as its first priority in its statement of policies.204 The
Philadelphia Land Bank lists development of affordable, mixed-income, The Greater
and market rate housing in its goals, and it has worked to preserve a large Syracuse Land Bank’s
affordable housing building, to develop new workforce housing, and to
facilitate a community garden.205 The Greater Syracuse Land Bank’s
disposition policy
disposition policy includes preferences and/or discount for uses with a includes preferences
community benefit, including affordable housing and community for affordable
gardens.206 Under this policy, the land bank worked with a nonprofit
agency, Housing Visions, to develop the Ethel T. Chamberlain House, an
housing and
$8.2 million supportive housing project aimed at chronically homeless community gardens.
women.207 The City of Columbus Land Bank actively encourages
community gardens on its sites.208
BENLIC has operated thus far at a modest scale. From 2015 through 2020
it sold or had under contract a total of 146 properties.209 According to
BENLIC staff, this is largely due to the City of Buffalo acting as a de facto
land bank prior to the creation of BENLIC, and, unlike some other cities,
keeping a large inventory of vacant and abandoned properties. By contrast,
the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, as of October 2020, had acquired 1,879
properties and sold 921.210 Of the roughly 1,000 properties in its current
56
inventory, approximately half are vacant lots.211 The Syracuse land bank
appears to enjoy greater financial support from its local governments; its
2020-2021 budget lists $500,000 in funding from the City of Syracuse and
$250,000 from Onondaga County.212 In part, this reflects the fact that
Syracuse puts all its foreclosed properties into its land bank. BENLIC
leaders state that they would not like to receive all the foreclosed properties
in Buffalo and Erie County, as that would exceed their capacity, but that
they would like to expand their work significantly.213 BENLIC would like to
ramp up to acquiring 110 to 120 properties per year, including 40 to 50 in
Buffalo.214 Thus far its funding has been largely from property sales and
from the New York Attorney General, which devoted one of its settlement
funds to land banks. The state’s land banks are seeking a more permanent
funding stream, such as a line item in the State’s budget each year.215
A new issue arose in 2020 when the City of Buffalo chose to take title to the
properties coming up for tax foreclosure auction, thus preempting
BENLIC’s ability to take them with its “superbid” powers. BENLIC then
had to negotiate with the City’s Division of Real Estate for the properties it
wanted – a process that resulted in only six acquisitions. Under the New
York State Land Bank Act, BENLIC can negotiate with the City to take
property without paying appraised value. Acquiring vacant and abandoned
properties from the City by negotiation will continue to be an avenue of
property acquisition for BENLIC under the new City of Buffalo auction
format. BENLIC hopes it can grow its City of Buffalo inventory this way.216
Under state law, BENLIC is free to sell at discounted rates to non-profits

developing affordable housing, community gardens, or other beneficial
uses, as many other land banks do and as BENLIC has done with Habitat
for Humanity.217 As BENLIC grows and increases its revenues from One first step would
fair market sales, government funding, and philanthropy, it should be
increasingly feasible to devote more properties to these below-market be to give nonprofit
transfers. One first step would be to give nonprofit developers a right of developers a right
first refusal on BENLIC’s sales. As the board of BENLIC is controlled by of first refusal on
Erie County and the City of Buffalo, providing it with more funding and
changing its mission and goals to promote equity, affordable housing, and BENLIC’s sales.
sustainability are policy decisions those governments can and should make.
57
TAX FORECLOSURE POLICY

In Buffalo, perhaps the most common path to a lot becoming vacant
over recent decades was the following sequence of events:
1. the property owner fails to pay property taxes or garbage fees, either
because they cannot afford to or because they have decided to
abandon it as no longer worth the costs of keeping it;
2. the City forecloses;
3. the property is placed for sale at the City’s annual foreclosure auction;
4. no one buys the property at the auction;
5. the City takes title to the property or “adjourns” the foreclosure,
leaving the property to be placed on the auction rolls again in
subsequent years; and
6. the building deteriorates to the point where the City demolishes it.
The primary purpose of foreclosure is to aid in bill collecting. The threat
of foreclosure is powerful leverage: if an owner does not pay taxes or fees,
the City will take the property. In a city with extreme poverty, massive
depopulation, and high vacancy rates, however, the tool does not function
as intended. Some owners who can afford the taxes abandon the
properties as no longer worth the costs of taxes and maintenance. Other
owners facing financial hardships such as job loss cannot afford the taxes
and get foreclosed – forcing them to move or become homeless,
exacerbating their poverty, and causing the loss of affordable housing. Tax foreclosure is
Instead of being “recycled” and brought up to code, many properties sit in a major engine of
limbo and get demolished. While the number of properties available at the property demolition
auction has significantly declined in recent years, foreclosure remains a
major engine of property demolition and vacancy. and vacancy.
City of Buffalo Tax Foreclosure Auction (Photo from Buffalo News)
58
ALL PROPERTIES AVAILABLE AND SOLD AT CITY OF BUFFALO IN-REM

AUCTION, 2009 AND 2019
3,304
836
688
374
2009 2019
TOTAL AVAILABLE TOTAL SOLD
Back in 2009, there were 3,304 properties at the auction, including 1,581
residential buildings and 1,587 vacant lots. Of these, only 572 buildings
and 197 vacant lots were sold. Since then, as Buffalo’s housing has
become more valuable, fewer parcels have made it to auction, and a
higher proportion have sold. In 2019, there were 688 properties at the
auction, including 181 residential buildings and 494 vacant lots. The City
removed 99 of the properties, and 374 were sold, including 172
residential and 191 vacant (see Appendix C for more data).218
In cities like Buffalo, therefore, two kinds of change are needed to

foreclosure policies. The first type of reform would aim to reduce the
The City of Buffalo
number of foreclosures. By improving payment processes and notice should reduce the
procedures and by creating or expanding emergency assistance programs, tax delinquency
the City (possibly with collaboration with the County and State) can keep
more low-income homeowners in their homes. These changes will reduce
penalty – currently
poverty, involuntary mobility, and abandonment, and thus more than pay 18 percent interest.
for themselves. Nonprofit law agencies such as the WNY Law Center,
Volunteer Lawyers Project, Legal Aid Bureau, and Center for Elder Law
have crafted a set of ordinance amendments and programmatic changes
that would accomplish these goals. Examples include:
• reducing the tax delinquency penalty – currently 18 percent interest;
• permanently ending foreclosures for failure to pay water bills and
garbage bills (known as “user fees” in Buffalo);
• ending foreclosures for bills below a threshold of $500 (currently the
threshold is $200);
• improved billing and notice procedures, including attempts to telephone
delinquent owners;
59
• creating automatic installment plans sent out to owners as soon as they

fall behind on their taxes and lower interest rates for owners who follow
those installment plans;
• improved payment procedures, such as showing current balance online,
allowing payment online, allowing more use of credit cards, and clearly
Improved billing,
stating the acceptance of partial payments; notice, and payment
• creation of a new emergency assistance program for low-income procedures can
homeowners facing foreclosure.
reduce the number
The second set of reforms addresses the disposition of properties that of tax foreclosures
go through foreclosure. The problem with the current system is that an
annual auction results in a random disposition of properties rather than a
in Buffalo.
strategic disposition to advance the public interest. Particularly because the
prices, although rising, remain low compared to those in other cities, the
tax auction attracts many predatory, irresponsible, or simply naïve investors
from out of town, meaning that many housing units fall into the hands of
investors who do not invest capital to make them safe and decent housing.
And, too often, vacant lots fall into the hands of speculators who simply
hold the lots without improving them or maintaining them well.
In the past, nonprofit housing providers have sometimes bought properties

at the tax foreclosure auction, but this is not a good and reliable method. It
makes it hard to plan and apply for affordable housing funding, because
there is no guarantee that the owner will not redeem the property or
that another bidder will not outbid the agency. A substantial majority of
properties on the auction list each year are redeemed before the auction,
many of them at the last minute. Furthermore, in recent years, prices for
vacant lots at the auction have ballooned in neighborhoods such as the
West Side.
Property tax foreclosure is governed by state laws that require

municipalities to take the highest bids and limit the extent to which they
can impose criteria on the buyers. Perhaps the best solution is for the City
to take title to all the properties that go up for auction and then dispose of
them itself, free from the state foreclosure laws, through an RFP process
such as the one outlined below. In 2020 the City did take title to the
properties, but it did not implement an RFP process or make other major
changes in disposition policies.
One cautionary note is the potential impact of such strategies on a subset

of low and moderate income homeowners undergoing foreclosure.
Currently, if the foreclosure sale generates more funds than are needed to
pay off all the liens, those surplus funds go to the homeowner. If the City
adopts a strategy that reduces these surplus fund disbursements, it should
adopt a complementary strategy to make those owners whole.
60
Below-Market Disposition
Considering its massive inventory of nearly 8,000 properties it is surprising
how few properties the City has transferred to any buyers (homeowners,
for-profit developers, or non-profit developers) in recent years.
Geographer Jason Knight reviewed real estate transaction data from the
New York Office of Real Property Services covering the years 2009-2018
and found that the City sold only 302 properties in that decade.219
HOMESTEADING
The City of Buffalo’s policies regarding below-market sales or donations
of publicly-owned land have been a source of confusion for nonprofit
agencies and residents. Over the years, the main mechanism for below-
market sales has been the City’s Homestead policy. Under New York State
Urban Development Law, in their urban renewal plans cities can designate
“urban renewal areas” in which they can sell public properties for less than
fair market value, often called “homesteading.”220
Homesteading in urban renewal areas can give rise to creative affordable

housing programs. For example, in the 1980s, New York City’s Urban
Homestead Program (UHP) granted up to $10,000 per unit to tenants
willing to inhabit and renovate vacant publicly-owned buildings.
Participants qualified for the program through a Request for Proposals
(RFP) process. After renovation, New York City sold the buildings to the
residents for $250 per apartment and required that the building operate
for at least 40 years as a Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC),
which include limited equity on resale profits.221
In Buffalo, the Homestead program has always been modest. From 2007 From 2007 through
through June 2017, the City homesteaded an average of 28 parcels per
year, with an average of 23 going to individuals and five to non-profit June 2017, the
agencies (typically Habitat for Humanity).222 Many, if not most, of the City homesteaded
vacant lots went to adjacent property owners to expand their lawns. an average of 28
Under the current Homestead Program, according to the City’s website: parcels per year,
Properties that are within designated Urban Renewal Areas are with an average of 23
eligible for inclusion in the Urban Homestead Program at the sole
discretion of the Office of Strategic Planning, with conditions: the
going to individuals
property is not needed for public purposes and no qualified buyer is and five to non-profit
attempting to purchase the property. A sale takes precedence over a agencies.
homestead. Applicants can acquire property in these areas for one
dollar ($1) plus the required closing costs.223
The phrase, “at the sole discretion of the Office of Strategic Planning”
creates some ambiguity, making it unclear whether every qualified
applicant will receive the property for $1 plus closing costs, or whether
other criteria, not listed on the website, will be used to make decisions.
61
There are three types of Homestead purchase:

• Vacant lot next to existing residence. The applicant must own and
occupy, as a primary residence, the house next to a City-owned vacant
lot. These lots are usually used as side yards.
• Vacant lot for new home construction. The new home must be built
within 12 months and must be occupied by the homesteader for a
minimum of 36 months.
• Rehabilitation of existing residential structure. The applicant must
be a buyer wishing to acquire a one or two family house as a primary
residence, or a Community Housing Development Organization
seeking to provide homeownership opportunities for people with low to
moderate income.
According to research by Jason Knight, in creating its new land use

and zoning law, known as the Green Code, the City presented a draft
Homestead Plan in October 2015, after significant input from the
public, to replace its 2005 Homestead Plan. The draft plan would allow
homesteading of vacant structures throughout the entire city. However,
when it adopted the Green Code on December 27, 2016, the City did not
adopt the new Homestead Plan. Instead, the Common Council approved
the termination and repeal of the Urban Renewal areas while resolving
that in the “absence of all urban renewal areas, the Council shall continue
to recognize the Urban Homestead Program and all previously [sic]
parcels determined to be Homestead-Eligible,” further resolving that the
current (2005) Homestead Program would remain in place until a new
Homestead Plan was approved. It is unclear what the Council meant by
“all previously parcels determined to be Homestead-Eligible.” That might
include any property in the former Urban Renewal Areas, or only specific
properties with pending applications.
Even the draft Homestead Plan of 2015 had several limitations. It did not Buffalo should
include nonprofits developing affordable rental housing, which is the greatest
need among Buffalo s residents with low incomes, most of whom cannot extend the
afford homeownership, even with assistance. It was unclear or silent Homestead zone to
regarding pricing – whether all eligible properties will be sold for $1 plus encompass the entire
closing costs, or the City will be negotiating below-market sales prices.
The City should amend its draft Plan to address these issues, extend the city, and use it to
Homestead zone to encompass the entire city, and use it to aggressively aggressively transfer
transfer properties at no cost to responsible non-profit agencies that properties at no
promote equity and sustainability. One tool the City can employ in its
Homestead program and other land dispositions is reserving the right to cost to responsible
repurchase the land if it is placed up for sale or if certain contingencies non-profit agencies
occur; this can help to make sure that the land is used for beneficial that promote equity
purposes in perpetuity.
and sustainability.
62
OTHER WAYS TO TRANSFER PROPERTY

In addition to its Homestead Program, there are several other ways
for the City to transfer vacant lots for beneficial reuse. At times, the
City has appeared to take the position that, outside of Homesteading,
it is forbidden to sell below fair market value by the New York State
Constitution’s prohibition on gifts, which forbids a city to “give or loan any
money or property to or in aid of any individual, or private corporation
or association, or private undertaking.”224 In 2009, PPG gave the City a
legal analysis clarifying that this provision should prove no obstacle.225 The
Constitution states that “nothing in this Constitution shall prevent a . . .
city . . . from making such provision for the aid, care and support of the
needy as may be authorized by law.”226 New York’s courts and its Attorney
General have also ruled that urban renewal and affordable housing
programs are constitutional, even if they involve some benefit to private
parties, because they serve a valid public purpose. The Attorney General
has stated explicitly that a city can donate property for an affordable
housing program.227
Many other cities regularly donate property for affordable housing and Cleveland offers
other beneficial uses. Ohio law, similar to New York law, requires that
a City receive fair market value for its property. Cleveland, however,
non-buildable lots
takes the view that its vacant property has only nominal value and for one dollar and
offers non-buildable lots for one dollar and buildable lots for $100.228 buildable lots for
Cleveland sells about 500 properties per year to community development
corporations.229
$100. It sells about
500 properties per
The City of Buffalo’s charter includes a provision for the sale of real
property via public auction or by sealed bids for the highest marketable
year to community
price.230 While this provision outlines two ways to dispose of public development
property, it does not forbid other ways, including below-market sales. Even corporations.
if it did, the City could simply transfer properties to one of its affiliated
authorities, such as BENLIC or the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, which
are not bound by the constitutional prohibition on gifts or the City’s
charter provision and are free to dispose of the properties below-market
for the public interest.231 BURA’s disposition guidelines already include
below-market sales to further the public health, safety, and welfare,232 and,
as noted above, BENLIC has already made below-market transfers to
Habitat for Humanity. In sum, there are multiple ways for the City to eff
ct below-market sales or donations, if it so chooses.
A NEW RFP PROCESS

In disposing of publicly-owned property, the City will want to ensure that
its process is open and fair, and that it maximizes the public benefit from
each parcel. Hence, the City should, as part of the community planning
process described below, establish goals and criteria designed to promote
63
equity and sustainability. The City could then issue a Request for Proposals,
perhaps quarterly, with a list of target properties. The City could then sell
the properties to the winning applicants for one dollar, with easements or
deed restrictions ensuring that the properties are used as specified.
Community Planning and Decision Making

As the City seeks to maximize the value of its vacant lots, it should engage “Residents are
in a thorough community planning process that taps the knowledge and
goals of residents, especially those living near the vacant parcels. Bryana invested in where
DiFonzo, PUSH’s new economy director, says that it’s important for the they live, and it's
City to have a plan, rather than dealing with vacant land one parcel at a important to share
time. She cites the need for a sense of urgency that leads to concrete goals,
a timeline, and the resources necessary to complete the task.233 And Dawn land use power with
Wells-Clyburn, deputy director of administration at PUSH Buffalo, says, people who live
“residents are invested in where they live, and it’s important to figure out there.”
ways to share land use power with people who live there.” She
recommends that the City “reach out to see what people need and figure
out how to democratize decision-making.”234 As part of this process, PUSH
also recommends that the City consult with the Seneca Nation on its
priorities for vacant land, including returning land to the Nation and
protecting sites with special historical or spiritual significance, such as
burial mounds.
In doing the community planning, it is important to provide residents with

a broad menu of options and considerations. For example, what
is appropriate for five contiguous vacant lots is very different from
what is appropriate for a single lot that is too small to build a house on.
Neighborhoods dealing with rapid gentrification have different needs than
those struggling more with disinvestment; those close to large parks have
different needs than those starved for public green spaces and recreational
opportunities. What potential does each lot have to help build community
wealth – through opportunities for jobs, home-ownership, or cooperative
business development?
Similar cities, such as Cleveland, have done holistic planning for vacant
land. Re-imagining a More Sustainable Cleveland was a one year planning
process which explored strategies for reuse of vacant land with the goal of
making Cleveland a cleaner, healthier, more beautiful, and economically
sound city. Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, in collaboration with the
City of Cleveland and Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design
Collaborative, convened a thirty-member working group to produce a
report, which found that “the City of Cleveland has the opportunity to use
its excess land in ways that: advance a larger, comprehensive sustainability
strategy for the city; benefit low-income and underemployed residents; City View Community Garden
enhance the quality of neighborhood life; create prosperity in the city; and in Cleveland (Photo from
help address climate change.”235 Clevelandmemory.org)
64
The Cleveland Planning Commission adopted the Re-Imagining Plan in

2008. In 2009 the partners produced a Vacant Land Reuse Pattern Book
which presents a wide range of ways to reuse vacant lots.236 They then
awarded $500,000 in grants through a competitive process, funding 56
projects in 2009.237 As of November 2020, there were 156 reuse projects
underway, including community gardens, pocket parks, neighborhood
pathways, market gardens, orchards, and rain gardens.238
Detroit offers an example of vacant land planning at a neighborhood

level. The Gratiot/7 Mile Neighborhood Framework Plan is one of 10
plans across the city of Detroit to be funded through the second
installment of the Strategic Neighborhood Fund.239 As part of that
planning, a group of masters in landscape architecture students worked
with neighborhood residents on a vacant land strategy for a neighborhood
with over 2,800 publicly owned vacant lots. After studying the
neighborhood and reviewing best practices, the planners shared their
knowledge with residents and then learned from them about their
neighborhoods and their goals, then generated an impressively holistic
plan.
LAND USE RANKINGS

Please indicate your top 5 vacant land use choices,
beginning with the most preferred
Survey Question from G7 Neighborhood Planning in Detroit
65
In Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings began a Growing Green Initiative in

2014 – a collaboration between City agencies and community stakeholders to
reimagine the uses of vacant land. One outcome was the “Green Pattern
Book: Using Vacant Land to Create Greener Neighborhoods in Baltimore,” a
toolbox which classifies the types of vacant land and illustrates eight greening
options: clean and green, community-managed open space, urban agriculture,
stormwater management, green parking, urban forests and buffers,
neighborhood parks, and mixed greens.240 (By “community-managed open
space,” Baltimore means “vacant lots maintained by a community, nonprofit,
or more than one household used for vegetable gardens, orchards, pocket
parks, and small recreational spaces.” By “mixed greens,” it means any
combination of the other seven uses).241
The City of Chicago, faced with a neighborhood with high concentrations of

vacant lots, initiated an 18 month community engagement process to develop
its Green and Healthy Neighborhood Plan, which prioritizes “urban
agriculture, active and passive recreation, new industrial activity, housing
preservation, and a variety of cultural resources.”242
In Buffalo, PUSH’s Green Development Zone offers an example of successful

community planning oriented toward equity and sustainability. PUSH uses a
comprehensive combination of door-knocking, text messaging campaigns,
The City of Buffalo’s
committee meetings, and community congresses to do its community-based Green Code and
planning. PUSH’s first Community Planning Congress hosted neighborhood PUSH Buffalo’s Green
residents as well as local officials, professional planners, and PUSH’s
neighborhood organizers and leaders.243 The Congress focused on the many
Development Zone
vacant properties in the Massachusetts Avenue corridor and had professionals offer good examples
design in response to what the community wanted to see happen. A of community
subsequent community planning meeting regarding how to repurpose vacant
properties was structured to encourage street-specific input. The meeting
engagement in
broke people into groups based on their street of residence to determine what planning.
changes they would like to see on their street. Before the small-group
conversations, PUSH made sure to provide background information to help
guide them. Following introductions, PUSH leaders gave presentations about
the history of the area that included maps and photos. Then, PUSH gave
examples of what other cities have done to rehabilitate vacant properties as
well as options for vibrant public spaces. Three questions guided the
conversations: what people liked most about their street, the changes they
would like to see, and the first thing they would do to improve the lots and
streetscape of their street. The architects working with PUSH took the
information from this meeting and designed a Healthy Neighborhood
Concept Plan with specific treatments for different lots, areas, and
intersections. Within six months of this meeting, PUSH had transformed
many vacant lots to meet the goals the residents had articulated. Collaborating
with partners such as PUSH that have extensive experience of their own with
community planning, the City of Buffalo can work with its residents to make a
transformational plan for its vacant land.
66
Appendix A:
Vacant Parcels Owned by the City of Buffalo and Related Entities244
Total Residential Commercial Industrial Community Parks Utilities Vacant
City total 8,410 131 29 0 169 147 16 7,918
Division of Real Estate 7,842 64 16 0 63 65 5 7,629
Department of Public Works 8 0 0 0 1 1 1 5
Division of Engineering 38 0 0 0 4 1 0 33
Division of Parks & Recreation 98 0 0 0 14 71 2 11
Fire Department 16 0 0 0 15 1 0 0
Police Department 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
Board of Education 71 0 1 0 64 2 0 4
Board of Parking 5 0 2 0 3 0 0 0
Sewer Authority 5 0 0 0 0 0 2 3
Water Authority 12 0 0 0 1 3 6 2
BMHA 74 64 1 0 2 1 0 6
BERC 61 0 0 0 0 0 0 61
BNRC 101 3 0 0 0 0 0 98
BURA 62 0 9 0 0 2 0 51
BUDC 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 15
67
Appendix B: Additional Examples of Net-Zero

Affordable Housing
River Falls, Wisconsin. This Habitat for Humanity eco-village includes
18 single-family homes that are LEED-Platinum and Energy Star 3.0
certified. Beyond being net-zero, the homes actually make the owners
money by generating excess electricity that is sold into the grid. The
average owner earns roughly $670 per year in credits from the utility.245
Kapuni Village, Hawaii. The Kapuni Village project includes 19

net-zero, single-family homes and a community center. Each home was
designed to have at least 40 percent lower energy consumption than the
baseline, achieved through: optimal building envelope design; ENERGY
STAR® appliances; high efficiency lighting and daylighting with good solar
control; natural ventilation; high efficiency air conditioners; and solar
water heating. A photovoltaic system on each house provides enough
electricity to meet the home’s needs. Other sustainable features in the
community include maximizing open space, incorporating native species,
water-wise landscaping, edible gardening, hydroponics, and aquaculture.246
Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado. Habitat for Humanity is doing a

net-zero community of 27 homes on land donated by the school district,
valued at $3.2 million. Pitkin County is funding the roads, utilities, and
rooftop solar panels, and the Town of Basalt reduced its permit fees. Half
the homes will be reserved for employees of the school district.247
Waltham, Vermont. In this small town, a former mobile home park that
had become a brownfield due to spilled oil has become Vermont’s
first net-zero affordable housing development. It features 14 two- and
three-bedroom modular homes with extra insulation to reduce energy loss,
healthy building materials, fresh and filtered air, triple-pane windows,
Energy Star lighting and appliances, and cold-climate heat pumps. Each
home’s total energy usage, including heating, cooling, and domestic hot
water, is covered by a 6-kW rooftop solar photovoltaic array with a solar
battery system for energy storage, which can provide up to six hours of
emergency backup power during grid outages.248
Granite City, Illinois. This public housing authority is building 43 green

units that feature efficient lighting, controlled daylighting, sustainable
design, and storm- and wastewater management. It is also building two
net-zero units that may be the first net-zero public housing in the nation.249
Jerseyville, Illinois. This net-zero development will feature 32 single

family homes renting for about $590 per month, for rural families that earn
less than $41,000 per year. Developers expect the families to pay zero for
their heat and electricity.250
68
Tiverton, Rhode Island. Sandywoods Farm includes 50 units of

affordable, eco-friendly rental housing in Tiverton, Rhode Island. The
nonprofit developer initially marketed it solely as an arts community, but
prospective residents expressed strong interest in community gardening
and farmland preservation, and so it became an “art and agriculture”
development.251 A future phase will include 24 single-family homes for
ownership. The project preserves 147 acres of land for a working farm,
open space, and community gardens, with part of the site being donated
to The Nature Conservancy. A community “Grange Hall” – and other
community space within the development -- features theater performances,
potlucks, cooking classes, and other group events. A 250 kW wind turbine
on site will provide nearly enough power for the development.252
69
Appendix C:
Dispositions from City of Buffalo
Tax Foreclosure Auctions, 2009-2019253
Total Residential Vacant Other
2009 total 3,304 1,581 1,587 136

Sold 826 572 197 57
Struck 200 147 53 0
Adjourned 2,278 862 1,337 79
2010 total 1,914 1,311 528 75
Sold 1,039 881 125 33
Struck 6 4 2 0
Adjourned 869 426 401 42
2011 total 2,239 1,372 757 110
Sold 1,086 826 200 60
Struck 13 7 5 1
Adjourned 1,140 539 552 49
2012 total 3,205 1,048 2,084 73
Sold 1,104 768 274 62
Struck 493 210 283 0
Adjourned 1,608 70 1,527 11
2013 total 2,399 678 1,684 37
Sold 914 601 281 32
Struck 203 6 196 1
Adjourned 1,282 71 1,207 4
2014 total 2,085 531 1,504 50
Sold 807 497 265 45
Struck 174 16 158 0
Adjourned 1,104 18 1,081 5
2015 total 1,881 495 1,339 47
Sold 746 456 255 35
Struck 118 22 96 0
Adjourned 1,017 17 988 12
70
Total Residential Vacant Other
2016 total 1,672 476 1,158 38

Superbid 79 67 12 0
Sold 689 405 249 35
Struck 39 0 39 0
Adjourned 865 4 858 3
2017 total 1,374 356 992 26
Superbid 35 25 10 0
Sold 579 315 240 24
Struck 333 0 333 0
2018 total 927 230 680 17
Superbid 42 9 33 0
Sold 559 217 327 15
Struck 47 0 47 0
2019 total 688 181 494 13
City removed 99 9 89 1
Sold 374 172 191 11
Struck 27 0 27 0
Residential Vacant lots

2009 572 250
2010 881 127
2011 826 205
2012 768 274
2013 601 477
2014 497 423
2015 456 351
2016 472 300
2017 340 583
2018 226 407
2019 181 307
71
PROPERTIES SOLD AT CITY OF BUFFALO TAX FORECLOSURE AUCTION

1000
900
900 RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES
800
800
700
700
600
600
500
500
400
400
300
300
VACANT LOTS
200
200
100
100
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Series1 Series2
72
Single-Family Two-Family
Properties Sales Share sold Median Properties Sales Share sold Median
2009 sales 589 253 43% $5,000 845 267 32% $4,000
North 26 20 77% $11,750 11 10 91% $12,000
East 493 187 38% $4,000 747 205 27% $3,500
South 23 14 61% $8,000 25 16 64% $6,500
West 47 32 68% $5,250 62 36 58% $5,750
2010 sales 520 364 70% $4,250 675 439 65% $3,500
North 24 22 92% $4,700 25 25 100% $8,500
East 432 287 66% $4,000 548 324 59% $2,500
South 25 19 76% $9,000 28 25 89% $9,500
West 39 36 92% $6,750 74 65 88% $5,500
2011 sales 529 335 63% $4,000 720 411 57% $2,500
North 22 21 95% $7,500 14 14 100% $14,000
East 461 276 60% $3,300 640 341 53% $2,000
South 20 19 95% $7,000 15 15 100% $5,700
West 26 19 73% $6,000 51 41 80% $11,000
2012 sales 395 299 76% $5,500 586 412 70% $5,250
North 13 13 100% $21,000 13 13 100% $24,000
East 337 249 74% $4,500 516 345 67% $4,000
South 20 19 95% $15,000 20 20 100% $16,000
West 25 18 72% $8,000 37 34 92% $15,000
2013 sales 304 273 90% $10,000 332 295 89% $12,000
North 23 21 91% $14,000 25 25 100% $26,000
East 233 209 90% $8,500 248 212 85% $9,000
South 28 26 93% $20,500 32 31 97% $16,000
West 20 17 85% $13,000 27 27 100% $21,000
2014 sales 270 258 96% $11,500 232 211 91% $13,000
North 19 19 100% $21,000 17 17 100% $39,000
East 206 194 94% $10,000 174 156 90% $11,000
South 26 26 100% $23,000 20 20 100% $19,500
West 19 19 100% $11,000 21 18 86% $22,500
73
Single-Family Two-Family
Properties Sales Share sold Median Properties Sales Share sold Median
2015 sales 230 209 91% $9,500 226 210 93% $13,500
North 25 22 88% $21,000 20 20 100% $28,500
East 164 149 91% $8,000 159 144 91% $8,250
South 27 26 96% $16,000 24 23 96% $25,000
West 14 12 86% $6,250 23 23 100% $35,000
2016 sales 212 211 100% $18,000 235 232 99% $17,000
North 13 13 100% $23,500 18 18 100% $22,000
East 167 166 99% $15,000 185 182 98% $16,000
South 18 18 100% $22,000 18 18 100% $21,000
West 14 14 100% $30,000 14 14 100% $21,000
2017 sales 169 162 96% $25,000 161 153 95% $35,000
North 22 22 100% $24,000 9 9 100% $102,000
East 129 122 95% $24,000 122 114 93% $33,000
South 12 12 100% $30,000 15 15 100% $36,000
West 6 6 100% $36,000 15 15 100% $51,000
2018 sales 114 112 98% $29,500 104 102 98% $39,000
North 15 15 100% $29,000 9 9 100% $43,000
East 82 80 98% $29,000 86 85 99% $35,000
South 9 9 100% $41,000 1 1 100% $76,000
West 8 8 100% $37,000 8 7 88% $41,000
2019 sales 101 101 100% $35,000 70 70 100% $40,500
North 10 10 100% $42,000 1 1 100% $60,000
East 73 73 100% $34,000 61 61 100% $38,000
South 12 12 100% $38,000 3 3 100% $59,000
West 6 6 100% $49,500 5 5 100% $133,000
Acknowledgments
This report was prepared for PUSH Buffalo and drafted by PPG Senior
Policy Fellow Sam Magavern with assistance from PPG Community
Researcher Sarah Wooton. Special thanks to Jason Knight, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Geography and Planning, Buffalo State
University, for his research on vacant lots and vacant lot policy.
74
Endnotes Affordable Housing Strategies for the City of Buffalo

(policy report, Partnership for the Public Good,
1 U.S. Census Bureau, “Quick Facts: Buffalo, City, New 2017), https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents
York,” November, 27, 2020, https://www.census.gov/ affordable_housing_policy_for_the_city_of_
quickfacts/buffalocitynewyork. buffalo_1.pdf.
2 Census Scope, “Segregation Results from 2010,” 9 Personal communication, Dawn Wells-Clyburn,
November, 27, 2020, https://censusscope.org/dev/ deputy director of administration at PUSH Buffalo.
content/segregation-results-2010.
10 Personal communication, Michael Riegel, executive
3 Anna Blatto, "A City Divided: A Brief History of director, Belmont Housing.
Segregation in Buffalo," Partnership for the
Public Good, 2018, https://ppgbuffalo.org/ 11 Personal communication, Jenifer Kaminsky, former
buffalo-commons/library/resource:a-city-divided- director of planning and community development,
a-brief-history-of-segregation-in-buffalo-1/. PUSH Buffalo.
12 “Price history for 46 Winter Street,” Trulia.com,
4 U.S. Census Bureau, “Quick Facts.”
accessed January 14, 2021 at https://www.trulia.
5 Marc Masson, “Vacant and Abandoned Housing in com/p/ny/buffalo/46-winter-st-buffalo-ny-14213--
Buffalo” (fact sheet, Partnership for the Public Good, 2012920512?rd=1.
2014), https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/data
13 Personal communication, Jason Knight, Associate
demographics-history/demographics_and_data/
Professor, Geography and Planning, Buffalo State
datademographicshistory-_vacant_and_abandoned_
University.
housing_in_buffalo.pdf.
14 Personal communication, Jason Knight.
6 UB Regional Institute, Rain Check: the First
Generation of Green Infrastructure in Buffalo 15 Groundwork Buffalo, “Our Impact,” November, 27,
(2018), 23. https://raincheckbuffalo.org/app/ 2020, http://gwbuffalo.org/impact/
uploads/2018/05/Buffalo_Sewer_Authority_ 16 “Google Maps Area Calculator Tool,” DaftLogic,
RainCheck1.0_Spring2018_SinglesReduced.pdf. accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.daftlogic.com/
7 ACS 5-Year Estimates (2015-2019) https:// projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm#.
data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=rent%20 17 Personal communication, Keith Lucas, Planning
percent20by%20percent20in- Director, Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.
come&g=1600000US3611000&tid=ACSDT5Y2019.
B25070&hidePreview=false 18 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, “Vacant Land
Management in Philadelphia Neighborhoods: Cost
8 The Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) is a measure of Benefit Analysis,” Philadelphia, 1999.
typical home value calculated by the popular real
estate website Zillow. Zillow provides ZHVI values for 19 Mallach, “The Empty House.”
homes by zip code and month. Between July 2014 20 Mallach, “The Empty House.”
and July 2019, the ZHVI rose 31% for the entirety 21 Mallach, “The Empty House.”
of U.S. real estate. In Buffalo during that same time
period, zip code 14201 (lower West Side) rose more 22 William Spelman, “Abandoned Buildings:
than double the country-wide rate at 65%. 14213 Magnets for Crime?” Journal of Criminal Justice
(West Side) rose even further at 85%. Zip code 21(5): 481–495, https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-
14204 (Fruit Belt and residential areas surrounding 2352(93)90033-J.
downtown) also rose significantly higher than the 23 Cui Lin and Randall Walsh, “Foreclosure, Vacancy
U.S. average at 61%; Zillow, “ZHVI All Homes (SFR, and Crime.” Journal of Urban Economics 87: 72–84,
Condo/Co-op Time Series, Smoothed, Seasonally https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2015.01.001.
Adjusted ($) by Zip Code,” accessed February
26, 2021, https://www.zillow.com/research/data/;
75
24 Pennsylvania Horticultural society, “Transforming Among Youth Facing Barriers,” November, 27,
Vacant Land,” November, 27, 2020, https:// 2020, https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/
phsonline.org/programs/transforming-vacant-land/ summer-jobs-reduce-violence-among-youth-facing-
program-model-and-impact; and Maggie Loesch, barriers-opportunity-united-states.
“Greening Vacant Lots: Low Cost, Big Effect in 36 Groundwork Buffalo, “Programs,” November, 27,
Philly,” Shelterforce, November 13, 2018, https:// 2020, http://gwbuffalo.org/programs.
shelterforce.org/2018/11/13/greening-vacant-lots-
37 Personal communication, Racheal Tarapacki,
low-cost-big-effect-in-philly/.
executive director, Groundwork Buffalo.
25 Loesch, “Greening Vacant Lots.”
38 Ibid.
26 Loesch, “Greening Vacant Lots.”
39 Ibid.
27 Eugenia C. South et al, “Effect of Greening Vacant
Land on Mental Health of Community-Dwelling 40 Personal communication, Bryana DiFonzo,
director of new economy, PUSH Buffalo.
Adults: A Cluster Randomized Trial,” JAMA
Netw Open. 2018; 1(3):e180298. doi:10.1001/ 41 ACS 5-Year Estimates (2015-2019) https://
jamanetworkopen.2018.0298. data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=rent%20
28 Charles C. Branas et al, “Citywide cluster percent20by%20percent20in-
randomized trial to restore blighted vacant land come&g=1600000US3611000&tid=ACSDT5Y2019.
and its effects on violence, crime, and fear,” PNAS B25070&hidePreview=false
11 (12) 2946-2951 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1073/ 42 Homeless Alliance of Western New York, “2019
pnas.1718503115. Homelessness Summary Brief” (policy brief, 2020),
29 UB Regional Institute, Rain Check: the First https://wnyhomeless.org/app/uploads/2019-
Generation of Green Infrastructure in Buffalo Homelessness-Summary-Brief-1.pdf.
(2018), 64. https://raincheckbuffalo.org/app/ 43 Partnership for the Public Good, Evicted in
uploads/2018/05/Buffalo_Sewer_Authority_ Buffalo: the High Costs of Involuntary Mobility
RainCheck1.0_Spring2018_SinglesReduced.pdf. (policy report, 2019), https://ppgbuffalo.org/files
30 Skye Hart and Sam Magavern, PUSH Buffalo’s Green documents/housing_neighborhoods/general/
Development Zone: a Model for New Economy housingneighborhoods-_evicted_in_buffalo.pdf.
Community Development (policy report, Partnership 44 See G. Scott Thomas, “Which Urban Area Has
for the Public Good, 2017), https://ppgbuffalo. America’s Oldest Housing Stock? Hint: We’re
org/files/documents/push_bu falo_27s_green_ Close, but It’s Not Us,” Buffalo Business First,
development_zone.pdf. August 11, 2016), https://www.bizjournals.com/
31 Personal communication, Jenifer Kaminsky, past buffalo/news/2016/08/11/which-urban-area-has-
director of planning and community development, america-s-oldest-housing.html ; and U.S. Census
PUSH Buffalo. Bureau, “American Factfinder Selected Housing
Characteristics: 2015 American Community
32 Ibid. Survey 1-Year Estimates (2015),” https://factfinde .
33 Ibid. census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/15_1YR/
34 Personal communication, Bryana DiFonzo, director DP04/0500000US36029.06000.
of new economy, PUSH Buffalo. 45 Erie County Department of Health, “Erie County
35 Center for Employment Opportunities, “Research New York Community Health Assessment 2017-
Results,” November, 27, 2020, https://ceoworks. 2019,” http://www2.erie.gov/health/sites/www2.erie.
org/impact-evidence; and Sarah Heller, Marianne gov.health/files/uploads/pdfs/cha.pd .
Bertrand, and Jonathan Davis, Abdul Latif Jameel
Poverty Action Lab, “Summer Jobs Reduce Violence
76
46 Jerry Zremski, “Rate of Lead Poisoning for Children brief, 2019), https://atlantic2.sierraclub.org/sites/
in WNY Far Exceeds that of Flint, Mich.,” Buffalo newyork.sierraclub.org/files/documents/2019/04
News, February 24, 2016, https://buffalonews.com/ Lockport%20Housing%20Authority%20full%20
news/local/rate-of-lead-poisoning-for-children-in- original.pdf.
wny-far-exceeds-that-of-flint-mich/article_59028a3d 56 Caitlin Dewey, “PUSH Buffalo plans 50 new
7967-5cb9-9b2d-55f4f935629a.html. affordable apartments for the West Side,” Buffalo
47 University at Buffalo Regional Institute, State News, August 17, 2019, https://buffalonews.com/
University of New York at Buffalo, School of news/local/push-buffalo-plans-50-new-affordable-
Architecture and Planning, and Make Communities. apartments-for-the-west-side/article_93a8573a-
2016. “The Racial Equity Dividend: Buffalo’s Great 7d1b-5347-a3e8-4df05aee37ba.html; and personal
Opportunity,” 42. communication, Rahwa Ghirmatzion, executive
48 Douglas Fischer, “Climate Change Hits Poor Hardest director, PUSH Buffalo.
in U.S.,” Scientific American, May 29,2020, https:// 57 Personal communication, Rahwa Ghirmatzion,
www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change executive director, PUSH Buffalo.
hits-poor-hardest/. 58 Lisa Prevost, “Rhode Island Development Pairs
49 City of Buffalo, Queen City in the 21st Century: Affordable Housing With Net-Zero Design,” Energy
Buffalo’s Comprehensive Plan (2006) p. 40, http:// News Network, November 18, 2019, https://
regional-institute.buffalo.edu/wp-content/uploads/ energynews.us/2019/11/18/northeast/rhode-island-
sites/3/2014/06/Queen-City-in-the-21st-Century- development-pairs-affordable-housing-with-net-zero-
Buffalos-Comprehensive-Plan1.pdf design/.
50 Affordable Housing and the Environment in 59 Detroit Shoreway, “Cleveland EcoVillage,”
Buffalo, New York (policy report, Partnership for the November 27, 2020, https://www.dscdo.org/
Public Good, 2009), https://ppgbuffalo.org/files cleveland-ecovillage.
documents/housing_neighborhoods/green_housing/ 60 Partnership for Affordable Cohousing, “Affordable
housingneighborhoods-_affordable_housing_and_ Cohousing,” November 27, 2020, http://www.
the_environment_in_buffalo__new_york.pdf. affordablecohousing.org/home/affordable-
51 New York as the ninth highest average residential cohousing.
electricity rate in the nation. The average monthly 61 Partnership for Affordable Cohousing, “Existing
bill is $148.30. Electric Rate, “Electricity Rates by Developments,” November 27, 2020, http://www.
State (Updated January 2021), accessed January 21, affordablecohousing.org/existing-communities.
2021, https://www.electricrate.com/electricity-rates-
by-state/. 62 Partnership for Affordable Cohousing, “Existing
Developments.”
52 Roger Colton, “Home Energy Affordability in New
York” (NYSERDA, 2011), file:///C:/Users/ilsdm39 63 Partnership for Affordable Cohousing, “Current
Downloads/2008-2010-affordability-gap.pdf. Projects,” November 27, 2020, http://www.
affordablecohousing.org/home/current-projects.
53 See, for example, William Bradshaw et al, “The
Costs and Benefits of G een Affordable Housing,” 64 City of Buffalo, 2020 Annual Action Plan,
New Ecology Institute (2005), p. 166. https://www.buffalony.gov/DocumentCenter/
View/7693/2020-Annual-Action-Plan-Summary.
54 U.S. Department of Energy, “Geothermal Heat
Pumps,” November 27, 2020. https://www.energy. 65 Personal communication, Teresa Bianchi, executive
gov/energysaver/heat-and-cool/heat-pump- director, Habitat for Humanity Buffalo.
systems/geothermal-heat-pumps 66 Ibid.
55 Sierra Club, Atlantic Chapter, “Geothermal 67 Ibid.
Heating System for Public Housing” (policy
77
68 Ibid. 81 Fruit Belt Community Land Trust, “About,”

69 Ibid. November 27, 2020, https://www.facebook.com/pg/
FruitBeltCLT/about/?ref=page_internal
70 Ibid.
82 WGRZ, “Habitat for Humanity Finishes 2 New
71 US Census Quick Facts, “City of Milwaukee,” Homes in Fruit Belt District,” September 10,
accessed January 21, 2021, https://www.census.gov/ 2020, https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/
quickfacts/milwaukeecitywisconsin. habitat-for-humanity-finishes-2-new-homes-in
72 Jeramey Jannene, “City to sell 19 lots for Habitat fruit-belt-district/71-4a03d5ae-e73d-4230-99bd-
homes,” Urban Milwaukee, January 14, 2020, c91be199c33f.
https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2020/01/14/eyes-on- 83 Fadia Patterson, “Fruit Belt Land Trust to Build 50
milwaukee-city-to-sell-19-lots-for-habitat-homes/. Low-Income Housing Units,” Spectrum News, July
73 Ibid. 24, 2020, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/
buffalo/news/2020/07/24/fruit-belt-land-trust-to-
74 John E. Davis, “Origins and Evolution of the
build-50-low-income-housing-units.
Community Land Trust in the United States,” in
Davis, John E., ed. The Community Land Trust 84 Ann Bellows, Katherine Brown, and Jac Smit.
Reader (Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land “Health Benefits of Urban Agricultu e,” (policy
Policy, 2010), 24-25. report, Community Food Security Coalition’s North
American Initiative on Urban Agriculture, 2004),
75 Davis, 4.
http://community-wealth.org/content/ health-
76 Davis, 13. benefits-urban-agriculture.
77 Dudley Neighborhood Inc., “Welcome to the 85 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of
Neighborhood,” November 27, 2020, https://www. Solid Waste and Emergency Response, “Land
dudleyneighbors.org/ revitalization fact sheet: Urban agriculture,” (fact
78 Emily Thaden and Greg Rosenberg, “Outperforming sheet, 2011), https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/
the Market: Delinquency and Foreclosure files/2015-08/documents/fs_urban_agricultu e.pdf.
Rates in Community Land Trusts” (policy brief, 86 Micaela Lipman, Bianca Davis, Kelsey Gosch, Sydney
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2010), https://
Jones, Erik Woyciesjes, Zhu Jin, Zachary Korosh,
www.lincolninst.edu/publications/articles/
Camile Brown and Samina Raja. 2020."Using the
outperforming-market#:~:text=Only percent200.56
Food System as a Lever for Change Evaluation of the
percent20percent percent20of percent20CLT,VA
Buffalo Community Hub Project," Food Systems
percent20loans percent20(MBA percent202010).
Planning and Healthy Communities Lab, University at
79 National Low Income Housing Coalition, “Report Buffalo.
shows African Americans lost half their wealth due 87 PolicyLink “Advancing Health Equity and Inclusive
to housing crisis and unemployment,” accessed Growth in Buffalo” (policy report, 2017), https://
January 21, 2021, https://nlihc.org/resource/report- www.policylink.org/resources-tools/advancing-
shows-african-americans-lost-half-their-wealth-due- health-equity-and-inclusive-growth-in-buffalo.
housing-crisis-and-unemployment.
88 Richard Conlin, Jim Diers, and Joyce Moty,
80 Thaden and Rosenberg, “Outperforming the “Seattle’s Treasured P-Patch Community Gardens
Market.” Face Uncertain Future,” Seattle Times, October
17, 2019, https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/
seattles-treasured-p-patch-community-gardens-face-
uncertain-future/.
78
89 Micaela Lipman, Bianca Davis, Kelsey Gosch, Sydney 106 Miriam Avins, “The Land Trust Solution: How
Jones, Erik Woyciesjes, Zhu Jin, Zachary Korosh, Baltimore Green Space Uses Land Ownership to
Camile Brown and Samina Raja. 2020. Using the Help Neighborhoods,” Cities and the Environment,
Food System as a Lever for Change Evaluation of Volume 8, Issue 2 (2015), available at: https://
the Buffalo Community Hub Project. Food Systems digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cate/vol8/iss2/17.
Planning and Healthy Communities Lab. University at 107 Johanna Rosen and Kathryn Rufh, “Farmland Access
Buffalo. in Urban Settings” (policy report, Land for Good,
90 Ibid. 2018), https://landforgood.org/wp-content/uploads/
91 Bellows, “Health Benefits. LFG-Farmland-Access-in-Urban-Settings-Guide.pdf.
92 Bellows, “Health Benefits. 108 NeighborSpace, “About,” accessed January 7, 2021,

at http://neighbor-space.org/about/.
93 Bellows, “Health Benefits.
109 Mauricio Pena, “Pilsen’s El Paseo Garden Set to
94 Heather Wooten and Amy Ackerman, Seeding the Expand to Vacant Lot, Warding Off Development
City: Land Use Policies to Promote Urban Agriculture from Site,” Block Club Chicago, October 10, 2020,
(policy report, Change Solutions, 2012), https://www. https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/10/12/el-paseo-
changelabsolutions.org/product/seeding-city. garden/.
95 Bellows, “Health Benefits. 110 Gateway Greening, http://www.gatewaygreening.
96 Bellows, “Health Benefits. org/, accessed January 7, 2021.
97 Erie County Department of Health, “Erie County 111 Personal communication, Jeannette Koncikowski,
New York Community Health Assessment 2017- executive director, Grassroots Gardens.
2019,” http://www2.erie.gov/health/sites/www2.erie. 112 Susanna Barton et al, Queen City Garden Plan
gov.health/ (2009), available at http://foodsystemsplanning.
98 Erie County Department of Health. ap.buffalo.edu/wp-content/uploads/
sites/68/2017/11/Barton_etal_2009_
99 Christopher Hudson, “Socioeconomic Status
QueenCityGardensPlan_UB.pdf.
and Mental Illness: Tests of the Social Causation
and Selection Hypotheses.” American Journal 113 Ibid.
of Orthopsychiatry 75, no. 1, (2005) 3-18, DOI: 114 Personal communication, Jeannette Koncikowski,
10.1037/0002-9432.75.1.3. executive director, Grassroots Gardens.
100 Bellows, “Health Benefits. 115 Biba Adams, “In Detroit, a New Type of Agricultural
101 Bellows, “Health Benefits. Neighborhood Has Emerged,” Yes!, November
5, 2019, https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-
102 Grassroots Gardens, “2019 Annual Report,”
justice/2019/11/05/food-community-detroit-garden-
https://bb27eed0-4c57-4235-ac3a-
agriculture/.
bb65c16eb04b.filesus .com/ugd/a89e08_
bc4b94f433354bc4bf3e57451b0c9180.pdf. 116 Ohio State University, “Summer Sprout,” November
27, 2020, https://u.osu.edu/summersprout/about/.
103 Personal communication, Jeannette Koncikowski,
executive director, Grassroots Gardens. 117 Laura Dorwart, “Summer Sprout Takes Gardeners
from Rookies to Green Thumbs,” FreshWater, July
104 Personal communication, Mary Hardy, co-founder,
16, 2019, https://www.freshwatercleveland.com/
Cambridge Avenue Garden.
features/SummerSprout071619.aspx.
105 Jill Eshelman, “The Social Ownership of Community
118 Conlin et al, “Seattle’s Treasured P-Patch.”
Gardens,” Ph.D. dissertation, 2016, p. 32, available
at https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files
neu:cj82p142r/fulltext.pdf.
79
119 City of Boston, Open Space Plan, pages 7-3-2.5 131 Micaela Lipman, Bianca Davis, Kelsey Gosch, Sydney
and 7-3-2.8, available at https://www.cityofboston. Jones, Erik Woyciesjes, Zhu Jin, Zachary Korosh,
gov/parks/pdfs/OSP2010/OSP0814_7.3.2_ Camile Brown and Samina Raja. 2020. Using the
CommunityGardens.pdf. Food System as a Lever for Change Evaluation of
120 “Homegrown Baltimore: Grow Local Resources the Buffalo Community Hub Project. Food Systems
List,” accessed January 7, 2021 at https://www. Planning and Healthy Communities Lab. University at
baltimoresustainability.org/projects/baltimore- Buffalo.
food-policy-initiative/homegrown-baltimore/urban- 132 Ibid.
agriculture-2/ 133 Hart, PUSH Buffalo Green Development Zone.
121 “Garden Irrigation Fund: Grant Agreement,” 134 Washington DC, Department of Energy and
accessed January 7, 2021 at http:// Environment, “Urban Agriculture,” November 27,
growingfoodconnections.org/gfc-policy/garden- 2020, https://doee.dc.gov/service/urban-agriculture.
irrigation-fund-grant-agreement/.
135 WROC, “Mayor Warren introduces Equity &
122 Elizabeth Royte, “Urban Agriculture is Booming, But Recovery Agenda in first part of State of the
What Does it Really Yield,” ENSIA, April 27, 2015, City Address,” January 7, 2021, https://www.
https://ensia.com/features/urban-agriculture-is- rochesterfirst.com/news/local-news/mayo -warren-
booming-but-what-does-it-really-yield/. unveils-rochesters-2021-state-of-the-city/.
123 McKibben, 52. 136 Baltimore Office of Sustainabilit , Homegrown
124 Royte, “Urban Agriculture is Booming.” Baltimore: Baltimore City’s Urban Agriculture
125 Personal communication, Diane Picard, executive Plan, Adopted November 2013, https://
director, Massachusetts Avenue Project. www.baltimoresustainability.org/wp-content/
uploads/2015/12/HGB-Grow-Local-Final-Cover-1.
126 Kyle Mackie and Amal Elhelw, “On National CSA pdf.
Day, Buffalo Urban Growers Sign Safe Farming
Pledge, WBFO, February 28, 2020, https://news. 137 Baltimore Office of Sustainability, “Urban
wbfo.org/post/national-csa-day-buffalo-urban- Agriculture,” accessed January 7, 2021 at http://
growers-sign-safe-farming-pledge. growingfoodconnections.org/gfc-policy/garden-
irrigation-fund-grant-agreement/.
127 Eric Westervelt, “As Food Supply Chain Breaks
Down, Farm-to-Door CSAs Take Off,” NPR, May 10, 138 Biba Adams, “In Detroit, a New Type of Agricultural
2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/05/10/852512047/ Neighborhood Has Emerged,” Yes! Magazine,
as-food-supply-chain-breaks-down-farm-to-door- November 5, 2019, https://www.yesmagazine.org/
csas-take-off; and Stephanie Hiller, “COVID-19 social-justice/2019/11/05/food-community-detroit-
Sparks a Rebirth of the Local Farm Movement,” Yes! garden-agriculture/.
Magazine, May 21, 2020, https://www.yesmagazine. 139 Michigan Urban Farming Initiative, “Projects,”
org/environment/2020/05/21/coronavirus-food-local- https://www.miufi.o g/projects and “America’s First
farm-movement/ Urban Agrihood, https://www.miufi.o g/america-s-
128 University at Buffalo Food Systems Planning and first-urban-agrihoo , November 27, 2020.
Healthy Communities Lab, “Seeding Resilience 140 City of Chicago, Green Healthy Neighborhoods Plan,
in Buffalo, New York,” November 27, 2020, adopted 2014, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/
https://foodsystemsplanning.ap.buffalo.edu/ depts/dcd/supp_info/green-healthy-neighborhoods.
seedingresilience/. html p. 28.
129 Hart, PUSH Buffalo Green Development Zone.
130 Ibid.
80
141 Patrick Cooley, “How urban agriculture swept 152 Pollinator Conservation Association of Western
through greater Cleveland,” Cleveland.com, July 17, New York, November 27, 2020, http://www.
2017, https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2017/07/ pollinatorconservationassociation.org/.
urban_farms_proliferate_in_cle.html#:~:text=In%20 153 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, “PHS Turns Vacant
2008%2C%20Cleveland%20amended%20its,sell%20 Lots into Pollinator Paradise,” November 27, 2020,
their%20crops%20for%20profi . https://phsonline.org/for-gardeners/gardeners-blog/
142 Ohio City Farm, “About,” November 27, 2020, phs-turns-vacant-lots-into-pollinator-paradise.
https://www.ohiocityfarm.com/about 154 Christa Kelleher et al, “Urban vacant lands impart
143 Adrienne Dipiazza, “Cleveland’s Ohio City Farm: hydrological benefits ac oss city landscapes,” Nat
Urban Farming with a Mission,” September 2, 2019, Commun 11, 1563 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1038/
Fox 8, https://fox8.com/news/clevelands-ohio-city- s41467-020-15376-9.
farm-urban-farming-with-a-mission/ 155 UB Regional Institute, Rain Check: the First
144 City of Boston Office of Food Initiatives, “ acant Generation of Green Infrastructure in Buffalo
Parcel Catalog,” accessed January 7, 2021, https:// (2018), 16. https://raincheckbuffalo.org/app/
www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/embed uploads/2018/05/Buffalo_Sewer_Authority_
file/2016-11/vacant_pa cel_catalog.pdf. RainCheck1.0_Spring2018_SinglesReduced.pdf.
145 Personal Communication, Joe Kurtz, member, 156 Emily Gordon et al, “Water Works: Rebuilding
Greater Buffalo Urban Growers. Infrastructure, Creating Jobs, Greening the
146 Personal Communication, Joe Kurtz, member, Environment” (policy report, Green for All, 2011), p.
Greater Buffalo Urban Growers. 9, https://pacinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/
water_works3.pdf.
147 San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, “Urban
Agriculture and Community Gardens,” accessed 157 Ibid, 88.
January 18, 2021 at https://sfwater.org/index. 158 United States Environmental Protection Agency,
aspx?page=469. “Stormwater Management and Green Infrastructure
148 See, for example, St. Petersburg Code of Research,” November 27, 2020, https://www.epa.
Ordinances, “Community Gardens,” Section gov/water-research/stormwater-management-
16.50.085.4.5, https://library.municode. and-green-infrastructure-research#:~:text=Green
com/fl/st._petersbu g/codes/code_of_ percent20infrastructure percent20practices
ordinances?nodeId=PTIISTPECO_CH16LADERE_ percent20include percent20permeable,
S16.50.085COGA. disconnection percent2C percent20and
percent20urban percent20tree percent20canopies.
149 Gunwoo Kim, The Public Value of Urban Vacant
Land: Social Responses and Ecological Value, 159 Alvaro Sanchez Sanchez, Andrea Quinn, and Jeremy
Sustainability 2016, 8(5), 486; https://doi. Hays, Staying Green and Growing Jobs (policy
org/10.3390/su8050486. report, Green for All, 2013), p. 12, https://www.
americanrivers.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/
150 Boston Tree Party, November 27, 2020, https:// staying-green-and-growing-jobs.pdf.
www.facebook.com/BostTreeParty/; Portland Fruit
Tree Project, November 27, 2020, https://www. 160 Green For All, “Using a Jobs Frame to Promote the
portlandfruit.org/. Use of Green Infrastructure,” (presentation to the
Urban Water Sustainability Leadership Conference
151 Greater Milwaukee Foundation, “Urban orchards (2012), https://www.slideshare.net/CWAA/
and parks replacing vacant lots as partners using-a-jobs-frame-to-promote-the-use-of-green-
implement sustainability grant,” https://www. infrastructure.
greatermilwaukeefoundation.org/newsroom/recent-
news/partners-places/ 161 Magavern et al, Building the Blue Economy.
162 Ibid, 64.
81
163 Ioby, “Hough Community Solar Garden,” November 176 Alicia Eller, “Conceptual Artist Mel Chin Reflects on
27, 2020, https://ioby.org/project/hough-community- Revisiting His Site- Specific Revival Field P oject,”
solar-garden-cleveland. Star Tribune, October 20, 2017, https://www.
164 Robert Allen, “Urban Solar Farm in Detroit Will startribune.com/conceptual-artist-mel-chin-reflects
Power More than 450 Homes,” Detroit Free Press, on-revisiting-his-site-specific- evival-field-p oject-in-
September 16, 2019, https://www.freep.com/ st-paul/451885553/.
story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/09/16/ 177 Aaron Besecker, “A tree table grows on Michigan
urban-solar-farm-detroit-power-more-than-450- Avenue,” Buffalo News, June 1, 2014, https://
homes/90490300/. buffalonews.com/news/local/a-tree-table-grows-
165 Magavern, Working Toward Equality. on-michigan-ave/article_742a743f-0fa3-5edb-a7d0-
894616ccf6c5.html.
166 Jason Knight, Russell Weaver, and Paula Jones,
“Walkable and Resurgent for Whom? The Uneven 178 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Geographies of Walkability in Buffalo, NY,” Applied Development (HUD), Office of Policy Development
Geography, Volume 92, 2018, pp.1-12. and Research, “Temporary Urbanism: Alternative
Approaches to Vacant Land,” November 27, 2020,
167 Li Yin et al, “Walkability, Safety, and Housing Values https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/
in Shrinking Cities: Spatial Hedonic Study in Buffalo, winter14/highlight4.html.
Pittsburgh, and Detroit,” Journal of Urban Planning
and Development, Volume: 146, Issue Number: 3. 179 HUD, “Temporary Urbanism.” Photo from https://
philly.curbed.com/2016/12/15/13956458/the-porch-
168 Western New York Land Conservancy, “The 30th-street-station-report-photos.
Riverline,” November 27, 2020, https://www.
theriverline.com/. 180 HUD, “Temporary Urbanism.”
169 http://www.clevelandnp.org/reimagining-cleveland/ 181 Robert Hickey and Elizabeth Sturtevant, Public

Land and Affordable Housing in the Washington
170 ParkScore, “Ranking Analysis,” May 3, 2019, https:// DC Region (policy report, Urban Land Institute,
www.tpl.org/parkscore. 2015), https://lsaplanning.com/wp-content/
171 Peter Harnik and Ben Welle, “Measuring the uploads/2018/12/PublicLandAndAffordableHousing_
Economic Value of a City Park System” (policy WashingtonDCRegion.pdf
report, The Trust for Public Land, 2009), http://cloud. 182 Hickey, Public Land.
tpl.org/pubs/ ccpe-econvalueparks-rpt.pdf.
183 Washington State Third Substitute House Bill, 2382,
172 Aspen Institute, State of Play: Western New “Surplus State Lands: Disposal,” http://lawfilesext
York (policy report, 2017), https://www. leg.wa.gov/Biennium/2017-18/Pdf/Bills/Session%20
ralphcwilsonjrfoundation.org/wp-content/ Laws/House/2382-S3.SL.pdf.
uploads/2017/06/State_Of_Play_WNY_RWJF.pdf.
184 Aaron Shroyer, “How Using Public Land Can Help
173 Ralph C. Wilson Foundation, “KABOOM! and Ralph Address Housing Shortages” (policy brief, Urban
C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation Announce Play Everywhere Institute, 2019), https://housingmatters.urban.org/
Design Challenge to Bring Play to Everyday articles/how-using-public-land-can-help-address-
Spaces,” press release, July 13, 2020, https:// housing-shortages
www.ralphcwilsonjrfoundation.org/wp-content/
uploads/2020/07/FINAL_KABOOM_RCWJRF_ 185 Shroyer, “How Using Public Land.”
PlayEverywhereDesignChallenge2020.pdf 186 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
174 Heidelberg Project, “History,” November 27, 2020, Development (HUD), Office of Policy Development
https://www.heidelberg.org/history. and Research, “Using Public Land to Defray the
Cost of Affordable Housing,” November 27, 2020,
175 Mel Chin, “Revival Field,” November 27, 2020, https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr_edge_
http://melchin.org/oeuvre/revival-field . trending_091415.html.
82
187 Laura Waxmann, “S.F. Supervisor Calls for 100 197 Christian Belanger, “Back to the Land Trust,”
percent Affordable Housing on Public Land,” San Southside Weekly, April 16, 2019, https://
Francisco Business Times, August 13, 2020, https:// southsideweekly.com/looking-back-community-land-
www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/08/13/ trust/
dean-preston-supervisors-housing-public-land-sf. 198 Center for Community Progress, “Frequently Asked
html. Questions about Land Banking,” November 27,
188 San Francisco City Planning Department, “Balboa 2020, https://www.communityprogress.net/land-
Reservoir and Community Advisory Committee,” banking-faq-pages-449.php
November 27, 2020, https://sfplanning.org/ 199 Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement Corporation
project/balboa-reservoir-and-community-advisory- (BENLIC), “Frequently Asked Questions, November
committee-cac 27, 2020, https://www.benlic.org/faqs/. One
189 Nonprofit Housing Association of Northe n downside of the BENLIC superbid occurs in cases
California, “Surplus Land – AB 2135 Fact Sheet,” where the tax foreclosure sale would generate
November 27, 2020, http://nonprofithousing.o g/ surplus funds that would get returned to the
wp-content/uploads/NPH-AB-2135-Surplus-Land- defaulting homeowner. If BENLIC superbids, no
Fact-Sheet.pdf. surplus funds get returned.
190 City of New York, “Mayor Bloomberg Announces 200 BENLIC, FAQs.
City Will Reach 160,000 Units of Affordable Housing 201 Personal communication, Benjamin Brown, BENLIC.
Financed Under New Housing Marketplace Plan
by Year’s End,” press release, December 21, 202 BENLIC Strategic Plan, 2016-2018,
2013, https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor http://docs.wixstatic.com/
news/428-13/mayor-bloomberg-city-will-reach- ugd/9cc5a9_6c4528e3c5f543ac9b646be8d4bea85d.
160-000-units-affordable-housing-financed pdf.
under-new/#/0. 203 Land Bank Twin Cities, “What We Do,” November
191 Peter Harrison, “Making the City’s Vacant Land Work 27, 2020, http://www.landbanktwincities.org/what-
for the Public,” Gotham Gazette, March 8, 2018, we-do/.
https://www.gothamgazette.com/opinion/7524- 204 Little Rock Land Bank Commission, “Priorities
making-the-city-s-vacant-land-work-for-the-public. and Policies for Property Acquisition and
192 Hickey, Public Land. Disposition,” approved 2012, https://www.littlerock.
gov/%21userfiles/editor/docs/Priorities%2
193 Hickey, Public Land. and%20Policies%20for%20Acquisition%20and%20
194 Hickey, Public Land; and Square 134 Architects, Disposition%20%28Revised%202012%29.pdf.
“1115 H,” November 27, 2020, https://square134. 205 Philadelphia Land Bank, “Strategic Plan
com/portfolio/1115-h-street-ne/. and Performance Report, 2019,” https://
195 Stephen R. Miller, “Community Land Trusts: Why k05.f3c.myftpupload.com/wp-content/
Now Is the Time to Integrate This Housing Activists’ uploads/2019/07/2019_StrategicPlan_
Tool into Local Government Affordable Housing DRAFTREPORT_PublicRelease_060519_PRINT-
Policies” Journal of Affordable Housing 23, no. 3 6.5.19-REDUCED.pdf.
and 4 (2015), 361-362. 206 Greater Syracuse Property Development
196 City of Chicago Department of Housing, “Chicago Corporation, “Disposition of Real and Personal
Community Land Trust,” November, https://www. Property Policy,” Amended January 17, 2017, http://
chicago.gov/city/en/depts/doh/provdrs/developers/ syracuselandbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/
svcs/chicago-community-land-trust-for-developers. Disposition-Policy-2017.pdf.
html 207 Greater Syracuse Land Bank, “News,” November 27,
2020, http://syracuselandbank.org/news/.
83
208 City of Columbus, “The City of Columbus Land Bank 16, 2009, https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents
Community Garden Program, November 27, 2020, housing_neighborhoods/policies_and_programs/
https://www.columbus.gov/landredevelopment/ housingneighborhoods-_city_of_buffalo_2009-2010_
communitygardens/ action_plan.pdf.
209 Personal communication, Benjamin Brown, BENLIC. 226 NYS Constitution, Article VIII, Section 1.
210 Greater Syracuse Land Bank, Home Page, November 227 1988 N.Y. Op. (Inf.) Att’y Gen. 141. See also Murphy
27, 2020, http://syracuselandbank.org/. v. Erie County, 28 N.Y.2d 80.
211 Terri Weaver, “For first time, see every Syracuse Land 228 Margaret Dewar, “Selling tax reverted land: lessons
Bank house on interactive map,” Syracuse News, from Cleveland and Detroit,” Journal of the
November 21, 2019, https://www.syracuse.com/ American Planning Association, 72:2, 167-180, DOI:
news/2019/11/for-first-time-see-every-syracuse-land 10.1080/01944360608976737.
bank-house-on-interactive-map.html. 229 Allan Mallach, Bringing Buildings Back, National
212 Greater Syracuse Land Bank, Budget 2021- Housing Institute (2006), Chapter 11.
2024, http://syracuselandbank.org/wp-content/ 230 City of Buffalo Charter, §27-13.
uploads/2020/10/2021-2024-budget.pdf.
231 The New York State Public Authorities Law allows
213 Personal communication, Jocelyn Gordon, executive sale for less than fair market value if “the purpose
director, BENLIC. of the transfer is within the purpose, mission or
214 Ibid. governing statute of the public authority.” NYS
215 Ibid. Public Authorities Law §2897(7)(ii).
216 Ibid. 232 Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, “Property

Disposition Guidelines Policy,” https://www.
217 New York Consolidated Laws, Not-For-Profit buffalourbanrenewal.com/about-1/policies/.
Corporation Law - NPC § 1609. Disposition of
property. 233 Personal communication, Bryana DiFonzo, new
economy director, PUSH Buffalo
218 Data provided by Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.
234 Personal communication, Dawn Wells-Clyburn,
219 Personal communication, Jason Knight. deputy director of administration, PUSH Buffalo.
220 2010 New York Code GMU - General Municipal 235 “Re-Imagining a More Sustainable Cleveland:
Article 15 - (500 - 525) URBAN RENEWAL 507 - Citywide Strategies for Reuse of Vacant Land,”
Disposition of property. adopted by the Cleveland City Planning
221 NYU Furman Center, “Directory of NYC Housing Commission, 2008, http://growingfoodconnections.
Programs, November 27, 2020, https://furmancenter. org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/06/
org/coredata/directory/entry/urban-homestead- ReImaginingMoreSustainableCleveland.pdf.
program. 236 Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, “Reimagining
222 PPG analysis of data from the City of Buffalo Cleveland,” November 27, 2020, http://www.
received through a Freedom of Information Law clevelandnp.org/reimagining-cleveland/. Detroit
request. and Baltimore have also produced pattern books,
Detroit Future City’s Field Guide for Working with
223 City of Buffalo, “Urban Homestead Program,”
Lots and Baltimore’s Green Pattern Book; see also
November 27, 2020, https://www.buffalony.gov/306/
Alan Mallach, “The Empty House Next Door” (policy
Urban-Homestead-Program.
brief, Lincoln Institute Of Land Policy, 2020), https://
224 NYS Constitution, Article VIII, Section 1. www.lincolninst.edu/publications/policy-briefs/
225 Sam Magavern, letter to Karla Cosmerl, Deputy empty-house-next-door.
Commissioner for Administration and Finance, July 237 Mallach, “The Empty House.”
84
238 Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, “Reimagining 248 Christine Serlin, “Net-Zero Affordable Housing
Cleveland,” November 27, 2020, http://www. Opens in Vermont,” Affordable Housing Finance,
clevelandnp.org/reimagining-cleveland/. October 11, 2016, https://www.housingfinance.com
239 City of Detroit, “Gratiot/7 Mile Strategic developments/net-zero-affordable-housing-opens-
Plan,” November, 27, 2020, https:// in-vermont_o.
detroitmi.gov/departments/planning-and- 249 Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation,
development-department/neighborhood-plans/ “Granite City Housing Net Zero Energy,” November
east-design-region/gratiot-7-mile-framework- 27, 2020, https://www.illinoiscleanenergy.org/grants-
plan#:~:text=The percent20Gratiot percent2F7 awarded/case-studies/granite-city-housing-net-zero-
percent20Mile percent20Neighborhood,and energy.
percent20investment percent20in percent20the 250 Affordable Housing Finance, “Net-Zero Energy
percent20neighborhood.&text=The Community Gets Under Way,” October 1, 2010,
percent20Gratiot percent2F7 percent20Mile https://www.housingfinance.com/news/net-ze o-
percent20planning,Whittier percent20Avenue energy-community-gets-under-way_o
percent2C percent20and percent20Schoenherr
percent20Road. 251 Jeffrey Yuen, “City Farms on CLTs,” Landlines, April
2014, https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/
240 United States Department of Agriculture, Green articles/city-farms-clts.
Pattern Book: Using Vacant Land to Create Greener
Neighborhoods in Baltimore, 2015, https:// 252 Union Studio Architecture, “Sandywoods Farm,”
www.baltimoresustainability.org/wp-content/ November 27, 2020, http://unionstudioarch.com/
uploads/2015/12/Green_Pattern_Book.pdf. wp-content/uploads/2015/02/sandywoods_farm-
project-page.pdf
241 USDAG, Green Pattern Book.
253 Data provided by the Buffalo Urban Renewal
242 City of Chicago, Green Health Neighborhoods Plan, Agency.
adopted 2014, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/
depts/dcd/supp_info/green-healthy-neighborhoods.
html.
243 The description of the Congress is taken from
https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/push
buffalo_27s_green_development_zone.pdf.
244 Data from the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.
245 Clean Energy Finance Forum, “Habitat for Humanity
Pioneers Net-Zero Affordable Housing,” November,
27, 2020, https://www.cleanenergyfinanceforum
com/2016/02/02/habitat-for-humanity-pioneers-
affordable-net-zero-housing
246 United States Department of Energy, “Kapuni
Village,” November 27, 2020, https://www.energy.
gov/eere/downloads/kaupuni-village-closer-look-
first-net-ze o-energy-affordable-housing-community-
hawaii.
247 Danielle Andrus, “Net-Zero Houses: Energy-Efficient
Solutions to an Affordable Housing Crisis,” Colorado
Builder, June 5, 2019, https://coloradobuildermag.
com/build/green-building/net-zero-heroes/.
85
www.ppgbuffalo.org
617 Main Street, Suite 300
Buffalo, New York 14203
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Using Publicly-Owned Land To Advance Sustainability and Equity in Buffalo

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Using Publicly-Owned Land To Advance Sustainability and Equity in Buffalo

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FEBRUARY 2023

Front cover photo by Grassroots Gardens.

Findings VACANT LAND.

Community planning Clean and green.

Supporting gardening Land disposition policies.

As a result, Buffalo is grappling with severe, intertwined challenges of

Adding to these challenges is the massive depopulation and disinvestment

half of their income on their housing costs.7

Youth Working at MAP Farm (Photo from Massachusetts Avenue Project)

Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) runs an urban farm on the West

Buffalo also confronts dire issues of sustainability, including longstanding

From the City of Baltimore’s “Green Pattern Book”

Buffalo has another key asset: a vibrant ecosystem of neighborhood

City-Owned Vacant Parcels (Map from Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency)

speculation in vacant land has increased in recent years, threatening to

Faced with a similar inventory of vacant lots, the City of Cleveland

Crime and violence. Vacant properties cause increases in crime. In one

PUSH Clean and Green Lot, 37 19th Street

Buffalo is also home to Groundwork Buffalo, a nonprofit whose mission is

documented in the PPG report, Evicted in Buffalo, homelessness and forced

Buffalo’s housing is old and in poor repair, a complicated problem

One example of a green building technique is geothermal heating, which

PUSH Buffalo s Green Development Zone offers a case study in the

Buffalo’s housing strategy should include two complementary elements. One

Rehab and infill is an important strategy for several reasons. Rehab is

But multi-unit development on vacant lots offers some unique advantages,

Cleveland EcoVillage Townhomes (Photo from GreenCityBlueLake) Cleveland’s

Cohousing developments are typically planned, owned, and managed by Cohousing is

Troy Gardens: Affordable Cohousing with Community Garden

Increasingly, cohousing developments are designed to include affordable

Land acquisition is an important cost barrier in affordable housing, and

Habitat for Humanity’s Buffalo affiliate leverages volunteer labor, sweat

Habitat for Humanity House at 36 Barry St.

Given the City’s strong interest in expanding homeownership, especially

Habitat Milwaukee Homes in Washington Park (Photo from Milwaukee Magazine)

The City of Milwaukee, with a poverty rate of 25 percent and fiscal

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS

The first incorporated land trust was New Communities, established in

Residents of Buffalo’s Fruit Belt neighborhood have long worried about

ASTHMA PREVALENCE BY SELECTED DEMOGRAPHICS, 2008-2010

Buffalo’s Food Deserts: Locations of Supermarkets and Farmers’ Markets

Community gardens promote public health. They increase access to

activities. Research proves that gardening correlates to reduced risk for

Cambridge Avenue Gardeners

Grassroots Gardens in Buffalo (Map from GGWNY)

Finally, community gardens build community in several important ways.

Buffalo has 110 community gardens in a network supported by Grassroots

insurance policy, technical expertise, and, when available, materials to

Pelion Community Gardens (Photo by Grassroots Gardens)

Pelion Community Garden is a school garden affiliated with City Honors

The Victoria Avenue Community Garden on Buffalo’s upper East Side

One of the biggest challenges for community gardens is land security.

El Paseo Community Garden, Chicago (Photo from Block Club Chicago)

In 2008, the City of Buffalo Common Council created a Community

Food Policy Council and including community gardens in the City’s

Other cities have been more vigorous in promoting community gardening.

The City of Baltimore prioritizes community gardens. Its parks

The City of Buffalo provides water access to community gardens through

Map showing the location of Grassroots

Urban farming could supply a surprising amount of Buffalo s food if

A Food Coop and

As shown during the COVID-19 pandemic, localized food systems can be

A Food Pantry with