By JODI SOKOLOWSKI
Buffalo Law Journal

A University at Buffalo initiative is partnering with city schools, faith-based groups and area nonprofits to revitalize distressed inner-city neighborhoods. Their current focus is Buffalo's Fruit Belt and Martin Luther King Jr. Park communities.

The UB East Side Neighborhood Transformation Partnership seeks to halt neighborhood decline by encouraging community development initiatives through housing, economic development and education.

The three-year project was created in 2006 with a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant. It is led by Henry Taylor, director of UB Architecture and Planning School's Center for Urban Studies, which is spearheading the project.

By bringing together groups like Push Buffalo, Habitat for Humanity and St. John Baptist Church, the project "attacks" housing issues at multiple levels to create a highly stabilized real estate market.

"Part of this housing strategy has to be raising financial literacy such as staying out of harm's way of co-signing or acquiring second mortgages," Taylor said.

The project is working with Hon. Henry Nowak, City of Buffalo Housing Court judge, to consider using public or private funds to help homeowners fix housing code violations.

"We have to find a way to maintain at least the external appearance as a way to stimulate housing investment," Taylor said.

The project also recently connected with Buffalo ReUse to board up vacant houses with student-painted plywood at 326 High St. The next phase will be educating residents on turning vacant lots into urban gardens.

The project also works on labor and business needs by assisting the Urban Community Corp., which trains at-risk youth in the construction trades, and the Fillmore Avenue Merchants Association, which connects business owners with training and capital.

"By using the neighborhood framework, we can see how all these multi-level projects together have a synergistic effect," Taylor said.

The project also established a mini-grant program with the UB Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy and UB Law's Community Economic Development Clinic to assist citizens with legal housing needs.

The initiative won the International Community Development Society's 2008 Outstanding Program Award, which will be presented in June in Canada.