Pitts’ & Masiello's Anti-Home Ownership Zones

New census data show that home ownership is lowest in 'Masiello country' & 'Pitts country'. Both city leaders have repeatedly cut ribbons on new or rehabbed houses, using rhetoric of "Home Ownership Zone" & "American Dream" (home ownership). But the rates of home ownership in their political backyards . . . Masiello's Niagara Council District & Pitts' Ellicott Council Dist. . . .are tie for lowest at a mere 22% owner occupancy rate in a city with a low 37% ownership rate.

Preliminary analysis of newly arrived 2000 Census data by the city Office of Strategic Planning shows steady erosion of home ownership citywide during one of the longest periods of national economic prosperity.

Owner occupancy fell from an already low 39% in 1990 to 37% owner occupancy in 2000, as the vacancy rate rose from 10% to 16%. In 1990 there were 58,909 owner occupied units; by 2000 owner occupancy had fallen by 5,586 to 53,323 owner occupied units. Particularly troubling is the rise in vacant units, from 15,535 in 1990 to an overwhelming 22,854 in 2000. Projecting forward from April 2000, vacancies have likely risen to over 24,000 currently. (See 2000 census data by Council District at www.wnypulse.com)

The Niagara District has long been controlled by the 'Perla machine' whose political organization has been the Niagara District Leadership Club. Sometimes called "the 300 Club", it charges $350 for 'employment insurance' for holders of political jobs, or hopefuls for political jobs. It has become Masiello's political machine behind the scenes & has long dominated WSNHS, the district's small, ineffective Neigh. Housing Service, which alleges merely about a dozen new homeowners a year at very high cost. It primarily provides home repair loans to poor homeowners facing property code violations.

Being part of a huge ‘poverty industry’ in Buffalo, WSNHS ignores massive middle class flight from the Niagara District & ever-growing blight, while "servicing the poor one victim at a time". WSNHS (& a plethora of small politically-connected housing agencies citywide) do(es) not work, but HUD, NYSDHCR (NYS Div. of Housing & Community Renewal) & the City pay seven WSNHS staff to do little.

The Niagara District numbers are deadly. Between 1990 & 2000 vacancies increased from 1,822 (10%) to 3,322 (18%). Owner-occupied units fell from 4,961 (26%) to 4,078 (22%). Renter-occupied units also fell from 12,111 (64%) to 10,803 (59%). Although growing numbers of arsons & demolition's reduced total housing units by 691 from 18,894 to 18,203, the increase of 1,500 vacant units has overwhelmed many neighborhoods. Property values are plummeting, as ever more middle income households of all races flee a sinking, ever poorer district. And new buyers are rare. So WSNHS pushes home ownership on the poor in a sinking market as the middle class flees. That is ethically questionable.

Week after week West Side sales under $50,000 average half of new, often sharply reduced, assessed values established by GAR Associates (Amherst appraisal firm with $2 million citywide reassessment contract). Often WS home-owners are often losing $3,000 to $5,000 of equity annually in their homes, placing among the highest taxed in the nation.

THERE IS NO PLAN TO STABILIZE THE WEST SIDE

Indeed the opposite is true. Week after week, west side sales under $50,000 average less than 50% of new, often sharply reduced assessed values. During the week January 14-18, such West Side sales averaged 25% of new GAR Associates assessed values. The prior three weeks’ sales also averaged 25% to 30% of new assessments. But WSNHS has no district-wide plan. Despite repeated requests., WSNHS refuses to address the powerful appearance of corruption in its vice president (Greg Fina Esq.) being connected to a just-sentenced housing scam, as housing scams are multiplying citywide. The King brothers were sentenced by Judge Arcara in September for their "Barons Development" Parlato-style FHA scam, which started at 296 Baynes, Fina's last city home as he moved to 262 Euclid Ave, Kenmore in 1990. Fina held the mortgage on 296 Baynes until Charles & Wm. King sold the house (which they had used as their business address for Barons Development) in 9/96 for $84,000. It was foreclosed by HUD for $103,635 in 4/99 and resold to an investor for $8,000 in 10/99. HUD lost nearly $100,000 on that one foreclosure. Meanwhile, Fina, a city hearing officer who has lied about his non-residency since 1990, now claims to live & practice law in a shabby unmarked apartment (1962 Delaware Ave. #4), handled the 1995 Clarence house purchase of HUD-funded BMHA Assist. Exec. Tom Williams ($76,000/yr. with a GED) , who is also required to live in Buffalo. Fina also owes $18,473 in NYS taxes (filed w County Clerk 12/25/00).

But Fina & Williams are members of the Masiello/Perla machine, placing them above the law. Their misconduct may not be addressed, as a virtual army of Masiello "carpetbaggers" regularly return from their suburban or North Buffalo homes to the sinking West Side to harvest riches created by a booming HUD-funded "poverty industry". They can usually be identified by Italian surnames & their boasts of "growing up on (now devastated) Massachusetts Ave" (or its equivalent).

WAY “PAST THE POINT OF NO RETURN”

Urban expert David Rusk warned in 1992 that Buffalo is "Past the Point of No Return", based upon his analysis of 1990 census data. The structural challenges Rusk described were Buffalo's inability to recapture bleeding wealth & tax base to suburbs (sprawl) & resultant ever-growing concentration of urban poverty. Instead of heeding Rusk, BMHA (double-staffed, patronage & developer-driven, Masiello controlled municipal hous. Author.) is spending over $100 mil. to demolish & rebuild unneeded public housing on the lower West Side, the poorest neighborhood in Buffalo. Buffalo instead needs to promote "trade" with the suburbs . . . swapping poor households to the suburbs for middle class households enticed into the city.

PITTS, POVERTY, PLAYGROUNDS . . & DEVELOPERS Council President Pitts carries out similar carpet bag tactics in "his" Ellicott District. While living in upscale N. Buffalo (179 Beard, assessed $182,000) with his white wife, he returns to inner-city Ellicott District to cut ribbons with his (white) developer friends, or to campaign, slapping backs & insisting . . "I never left da hood!" Sometimes called "Talkin' Black . . Sleepin' White", Pitts has turned politics of race & poverty into an art form. He has channeled massive HUD & DHCR funds into a very poor district, which guarantees a steady stream of political gifts from grateful developers. Pitts has engineered $40 million at Ellicott Mall, $46 million on a "Home Ownership Zone", & is now engineering $45-50 million at long-troubled, half empty BMHA-Frederick Douglass Towers, & most dubious, $105 million at West Side Lakeview Homes. Census numbers show the dismal results for such massive expenditures of taxpayer resources, as ever more poor neighborhoods are in precipitous decline.

Ellicott District is tie for bottom with Niagara District with 22% owner occupancy. The massive subsidies have increased ownership by 4%, from 3,627 (18%) in 1990 to 3883 (22) in 2000, a gain of 256 owners. However, Planning Dept. analysis shows that many new Ellicott owners moved from Hamlin Park, Buffalo's most stable Black community, in adjacent Masten District. Also predominantly black, Masten District lost 773 owners during the same period, many to Ellicott ‘newbuilds’, making it a dubious benefit. Strategic Planning Commissioner has called it "musical housing".

Rarely discussed, as connected-developer Dennis Penman alleges that newbuilds are a good way to "build value" . . . is the dramatic loss of value suffered by many much touted "newbuilds" (usually subsidized $25,000 or more) when they are foreclosed, often within 5 years. They rarely resell for half price. Currently 300 Peach, which sold new for $80,000 five years ago, is reselling after HUD foreclosure for $30,600 (38%). Affecting 300 Peach is theft of a picture window & patio door. A more dramatic example is undamaged 110 Guilford (sold $84,000, 9/96) which was just resold by HUD for $16,000 (19%).

A major demolition initiative in Ellicott has reduced vacancies from 4239 (21%) to 3936 (22%), but renter-occupied units have also been dramatically reduced from 12,229 (61%) to 9,935 (56%). Obviously a cost-benefit analysis of HUD & DHCR funding to Buffalo . . & to Ellicott Dist. specifically . .is urgently needed. Expenditure of perhaps $1/4 billion over a decade in one poor district made few lasting impacts. All those taxpayer funds have minimally increased tax base, if at all. Getting the numbers is very difficult . .making it easy for Pitts’ developer friends to sell Buffalo’s equivalent of snake oil.

PITTS & PLAYGROUNDS

Pitts also quietly operates Johnny B Wiley Athletic Field at the former War Memorial Stadium (Jefferson & Best). It was remodeled at a cost of over $8 million & locked-up for nearly two years until Pitts opened it with a bolt cutter as he campaigned several years ago. The generous rehab grant provided no funds for operation. Who now pays the four staff in six newly renovated offices (including upscale office equipment, for $1/2 million?), done with no neighborhood input or knowledge, is not known. Nor what the staff do in the dead of winter with no children in sight. Led by East Amherst resident Larry Stitts, who claims to live in an attic on Scheule, not with his wife on Tonawanda Creek Road, is one of many secrets in Buffalo (call 885-8500, Extension 30, for activities calendar information). Community Centers (& playgrounds), steadily multiplying in a city where nearby schools close at 3 PM, have become the newest costly political playgrounds.

Pitts' office budget is now nearly $1/2 million, having increased 50% over just several years. Why the Council President runs a playground needs careful scrutiny, especially when $1 billion of new school construction will focus the un-affordable cost of duplicative new community centers & new schools. For example, as Pitts secretly runs Johnny B Wiley Field, he is silent about the non-opening (after school hr.) of $26 mil. "Community School" Makowski Early Childhood Center across Jefferson. And silent about unavailability of Drew Science Magnet "Community School" nearby in MLK Park.

Nearby, politically-connected Bishop Sanders has cashed-in on the frenzy of “faith-based initiatives” to build his redundant HUD-subsidized community center as well. It is around the corner from Sander’s new Earl Place HUD-subsidized neighborhood built for his church members. (Bishop Sanders & his wife drive twin upscale SUV’s to their home in the suburbs, where many powerful inner-city preachers live). Preachers & politicians are too often carpetbaggers, living well off inner-city poverty. Its another of countless examples of Buffalo's unaffordable, unsustainable . . . & unaccountable government.

MORE TO COME . . . PITTS, POVERTY & PLAYGROUNDS

Faith-based Initiatives . .Corrupting the Clergy

Richard Kern, Jan 30, Rev. 2/11, 2002; 882-2388; website: www.Kernwatch.com