Neglected homes and vacant lots leave Buffalo residents angry

Link to July 6 Buffalo News article.

Excerpt. If there’s a forgotten Buffalo neighborhood, a street abandoned and left for dead, it’s Ruhland Avenue. Walk down the quiet, tree-lined avenue, and you might think you’re in rural North Collins instead of the East Side. Walk a little farther and you’ll discover seven out of every 10 properties on Ruhland are vacant and abandoned.

Buffalo’s housing crisis, the result of 50 years of population loss, has rapidly accelerated in recent years. The city is now a community where 23 percent of the housing units are vacant, according to a 2006 census estimate.

That translates into about 18,000 houses, or about one of every five properties in the city. The lion’s share are on the East Side and West Side.

The crisis is so big, so widespread, experts say, it may represent the single biggest challenge facing Buffalo’s neighborhoods.