for Wizig of Houston . . . Anything goes!
Scott Wizig is the Houston investor who bought over 280 houses, very cheap.
Last week (6/4-8) city lawyers finally filed 13 deeds for houses Wizig bought
at city tax foreclosure sale last Oct. None appeared in the News because
purchase prices were all below the News' $5,000 minimum. Indeed, Wizig bought
6 two-family houses for $400 to $900 each. The most expensive was $4200.
Total cost for 13 houses was $16,900, averaging $1,300 per (mostly 2 fam.)
house. Wizig got assessed values reduced from a total of $188,000 (newly
assessed by GAR Associates) to $57,500. The average assessed value per house
is now $4,413. His city & county taxes average just above $100 per house per
year.
Wizig became Buffalo's biggest slumlord in a mere 8 months. Neighborhood
leaders are appalled by conditions of most Wizig properties. Many, in
devastated neighborhoods & vacant for years, cannot be rehabbed within market
range. On the West Side, Wizig failed to either secure or clean out several
houses in horrible condition (despite unlimited free dumping at the City
Drop-off site). He has cut grass, now 18" high, at only one West Side house.
The evidence that Wizig owns 280+ houses is hard to find. The city has
recorded only 146 deeds for Wizig's NY Liberty Homes LLC, with the County
Clerk. The shocking news that Wizig may now build 50 NEW houses on the DEC
site (Diocesan Educational Campus, btwn. Dodge & Northampton) is puzzling
because there is little evidence Wizig owns the site. However, the large
parcel, sold to controversial developer Mark Trammell (MHT HOLDINGS Inc) in
1996 for $35,000 had its new assessment reduced in December by Wizig from
$100,000 to $36,000.
Keep building . . Forget those 22,854 Vacancies New Census data that
Buffalo is #2 in vacancies in the North East, exceeded only by Camden, has
obviously eluded both Masiello & the Catholic Church, as well as Wizig & city
hall's favorite developer Dennis Penman. It is now folklore in Buffalo that
newbuilds sell in foreclosure at * price. The most recent example is a
'newbuild' at Glenwood & Masten, sold by James Management for $80,000 five
years ago; it just sold in foreclosure at $22,900 (29% of its "new" price). A
city planner recently moved into a W'side Gal-Van "townhouse", sold new for
$79,000, paying $25,000 after it had been on the market for over a year.
Two weeks ago, 29 Buffalo sales were below $5,000 & did not appear in the
Buffalo News. Half (46 of 91) were "distressed" (foreclosures). Low end
housing routinely sells for * to 2/3 of new assessed values. In this context,
BMHA (hous. Auth.) is building its most costly NEW housing ever. Frederick
Douglass & Lakeview HOPE VI total $125 million . . as the much touted West
Side Initiative will put $55,000 in rehab loans on 125 struggling blocks by
summer's end. Meanwhile, planners propose demolishing 22,000 units over a
decade at a cost of $76 million.
Developer (& Church?) Driven Thousands of Buffalo home owners have lost
life savings in their homes during the longest national economic boom in US
history. Abandoned housing dominates scores of struggling neighborhoods. But
most of about $150+ million of HUD funding (the real total is a well-kept
secret) coming into Buffalo ignores the crisis. Instead it focuses on
building more housing, a sure formula for disaster.
WHY? Because the city has no housing policy. In a city choking on vacancies
most of the houses Wizig bought should have been demolished instead. Why
would the city sell slums to an out of town developer, knowing that every
house he re-occupies simply empties another? A sensible policy would be for
the city to refuse to resell foreclosed housing appraised at less than $5,000
(?) thereby eliminating some of the worst housing. Instead Wizig is reselling
slum housing at exorbitant prices and taking the profits to Houston.
The real (NON) policy: WHATEVER DEVELOPERS WANT, DEVELOPERS GET! In a city
with no home owners' lobby . . & a plethora of small, ineffective,
politically controlled housing agencies, it is politically easier to give
millions to developers, who cut ribbons on TV . . & generously remember
politicians at election time. And the Catholic Church ignores the plight of
1, 000s of Catholics in struggling neighborhoods. It is easier to get HUD
millions to demolish derelict church buildings marring the beauty of their
1st "black church". Meanwhile, the Vice President of WSNHS, Greg Fina, Esq.,
also a city hearing officer (who lies about residency, living in Kenmore) was
likely involved in a major HUD-FHA scam costing HUD $95,000 after the King
brothers sold his former Buffalo house at 296 Baynes. But nobody will talk
about it.
The rhetoric is "neighborhood based planning". But getting the most basic
planning data is daunting. The city spent generously to print individual
full-color booklets for each of 12 "planning communities" using outdated 1990
Census data. But planners have fallen silent about the obvious 'election year
ploy' As Mike Risman, the city's top lawyer will not tell us how many Wizig
properties (150?) are yet to be filed from last October. This writer is
weighing whether to declare . . "Mr. Wizig, you will build new housing in
Buffalo . . . over my dead body!"
Richard Kern, MSW, June 19, 2001
www.Kernwatch.com (716)882-2388 email: Kernwatch@AOL.com
