Town of Smithtown Awarded $350K Grant to Combat Zombie Home Epidemic

The Town of Smithtown has been awarded a $350,000 grant from the Office of the New York State Attorney General to address the decaying and abandoned foreclosure properties known as “zombie homes.”

The Attorney General believes these zombie homes have become a statewide problem. There were 2,084 zombie homes in Suffolk County and 1,960 in Nassau County in 2014, according to a 2014 Newsday study.

The study also found that “zombie homes” have cost Long Island at least $295 million in depreciated home values, while Long Island municipalities spent at least $3.2 million to clean, maintain and board up these properties in 2013.

Funding for the statewide initiative is drawn from the $3.2 billion settlement agreement with Morgan Stanley that Schneiderman, as co-chair of the federal-state working group on residential-mortgage-based securities, negotiated in February, according to the AG. The settlement generated $550 million in cash and consumer relief for New Yorkers.

The money will be used to address housing vacancy and increasing municipalities’ capacity for housing code enforcement, for tracking and monitoring vacant properties, and for legal enforcement capacity to ensure banks and mortgage companies comply with local and state law.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a national community development intermediary that specializes in affordable housing, economic development, and community revitalization, is overseeing the initiative; selected the grantees; and will be providing technical assistance to the funded municipalities as they implement their plans.

“Too many homeowners across New York are still struggling to rebuild their communities in the wake of the housing crisis caused by major banks,” Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a press release. “I’m proud that the funding obtained by my office’s settlement with Morgan Stanley will now help cities and towns across the state reverse the proliferation of zombie properties, which invite crime and threaten the value of surrounding homes. These grants will help rebuild, revitalize, and stabilize communities across the state.”