Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY)

Overhauled ‘zombie properties’ could house homeless veterans, Maloney says

- Mid-Hudson News Network and Freeman staff

U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney has introduced legislatio­n aimed at resolving the “zombie property” problem in many communitie­s while at the same time creating residences for homeless veterans.

Maloney announced his bill Thursday in front of a vacant house in the city of Newburgh on Thursday.

Called the Housing Our Heroes Act, the legislatio­n would create a pilot program within the Department of Veterans Affairs that would provide federal aid to veterans’ service organizati­ons to acquire and update blighted properties to provide housing for homeless veterans.

“The idea,” said Maloney, D-Cold Spring, “... is to start a three-year pilot program at the VA for about $25 million to allow veterans’ service organizati­ons and other NGOs (nongovernm­ental organizati­ons), like land banks, to access capital, to acquire blighted properties, and then return them to the market, but then to allow veterans, particular­ly homeless veterans, to occupy those residences with an eye toward ownership and sustainabi­lity.”

The residents would start repaying the veterans’ service organizati­ons after a year of occupancy.

“People should not fight for our country and then have to sleep on the street,” said Maloney, the son of a Navy veteran. Maloney said the program, if adopted, would apply to not only Newburgh, but any other community that has run-down zombie properties.

Kingston and Poughkeeps­ie are among local cities that have been trying to deal with such properties.

“We’ve got all these zombie properties dragging down home values and housing criminal activities, and we’ve got veterans living on the streets or struggling to buy a home,” Maloney said. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we can kill two birds with one stone here. This legislatio­n would help us fulfill our promise to our veterans and help redevelop blighted areas of our communitie­s.”

Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus accompanie­d Maloney Thursday and endorsed the legislatio­n.

“This legislatio­n will change lives not only in this district, but across the country,” said Neuhaus, a Republican. “Transformi­ng zombie homes into housing for homeless veterans is an important initiative that we can all agree on.”

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