Town of Amherst

AMHERST TO HELP COMBAT VACANT HOUSING:

Amherst will join other inner-ring suburbs, as well as Buffalo, in a regional effort to combat the growing problem of vacant properties, Town Board members decided Monday.

By unanimous consent, town lawmakers threw their support behind a proposal to create an Erie-Buffalo Vacant Properties Coordinating Council and to designate the Buffalo area as a Vacant Properties Living Laboratory.

Supervisor Satish B. Mohan, who proposed the measure, said a 2004 study found that every abandoned property represents "a substantial cost" for municipalities.

Census data indicates that 17 percent of Buffalo's housing units and 6 percent of the combined housing stock of Amherst and Cheektowaga are vacant. The trend is growing, especially in Buffalo's first-ring suburbs, where an estimated 5,558 housing units are now vacant in Amherst and Cheektowaga, The Buffalo News reported Jan. 22.

In November, representatives from the city, the Town of Tonawanda, Cheektowaga and Amherst joined the National Vacant Properties Campaign, which offers help to communities dealing with vacant and abandoned properties.