NYS Vacant Rental Program (VRP) – Onondaga County
The Vacant Rental Improvement Program (“VRP”) is a grant program funded by the State of New York and administered by the Housing Trust Fund Corporation’s (HTFC) Office of Community Renewal (OCR), to support repairs and rehabilitation of vacant rental units and other vacant spaces to increase the supply of critically needed apartments for low- and moderate-income renters. The program aims to help owners of rental properties bring vacant units and spaces in small-scale properties back into productive use to create safe, quality, and affordable long-term rental units.
This grant program is available for the rehabilitation of vacant rental units in 1-5 unit buildings located within Onondaga County. The program can provide a standard award grant of up to $250,000 ($50,000 per unit) or an enhanced award grant of up to $375,000 ($75,000 per unit) to rehab a maximum of five (5) vacant rental units within the same building. There are many program eligibility stipulations and regulatory requirements including, but not limited to, those listed below.
- Property must be located within Onondaga County
- Unit(s) eligible for rehab must be vacant, i.e., uninhabitable and/or unmarketable (a tenant cannot be relocated or evicted to make a unit vacant)
- The property must not be in foreclosure
- Property owner (private, certain business entities, nonprofits, public entities) must be the legal owner of one of the following:
- 1-5 unit residential property
- Mixed-use building with five (5) or fewer housing units
- Vacant commercial buildings that will be converted to one of the above
- Property owners must meet “Responsible Owner” requirements including, but not limited to, disclosing all owned properties, no bankruptcy or foreclosures, current on mortgage, property taxes and utilities and have comprehensive property insurance.
NOTE: Application priority is given to local landlords who Live Locally in Central New York (Onondaga, Madison, Oswego, Cortland, Cayuga, Oneida and Jefferson Counties) and own a real estate portfolio containing 20 or fewer rental properties. Priority will also be given to vacant properties located in rural areas as well as towns and villages in Onondaga County.
- Two award options will be made available to eligible property owners:
- Standard Award: up to $50,000 per eligible unit. The compliance requirement for this award is to rent to tenants with income up to 80% Area Median Income at a rate affordable to the 80% AMI level.
- Enhanced Award: up to $75,000 per eligible unit. The compliance requirement for this award is to rent to tenants with income up to 60% Area Median Income at a rate affordable to the 60% AMI level.
- Grant assistance does not require matching funds from a participating property owner as a condition for receiving an award.
- Rehabilitation work will be determined by an Onondaga County Community Development Inspector and can include health and safety, code violations, access and egress improvements, roofs, basements, foundations, environmental remediation and other required rehabilitation.
- Property owner must agree to a 10-year regulatory period that includes affordability restrictions to participate in this program. Affordability restrictions for this program are tenant household income limits and maximum rent limits as determined by a Rent & Income Limit Calculator.
For detailed Program information, click HERE.
For a printable pdf Program application, click HERE.
For a fillable pdf Program application, click HERE.
For Application Instructions, click HERE.
Have property within the City of Syracuse? Click HERE for details about HomeHeadquarters program.
|
