Town Accepting Applications For 1 Tower St. - Huntington, NY Patch

Town Accepting Applications For 1 Tower St. - Huntington, NY Patch
Town Accepting Applications For 1 Tower St.
It is the second home to be sold as part of the "Take Back the Blocks" program.
By Kelly Campbell | Email the author | May 13, 2010 Print &nbps;1 Comment
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The Town of Huntington is applications for the purchase of 1 Tower Street in Huntington Station as part of its "Take Back the Blocks" program initiated by Supervisor Frank Petrone in 2003.

The town purchased the run-down property in 2004 along with Suffolk County and announced plans to renovate the house and transform it in to a community resource center.

But through the years, the project morphed from a community resource center to a part-time office for town's public safety officers. Now, the renovated three-bedroom, two-bath home with an accessory rental apartment will be sold in a lottery for $203,625.

This is the second home to be sold under the program. The first, sold in 2005, is located at 32 East 6th Street.

One Tower Street, purchased from Pius Realty, is located just a block away from the Jack Abrams Intermediate School, where there have been several shootings in the past year. Huntington parents and school board trustees have been up in arms about the crime in the area, demanding the town take action.

Huntington School Board Trustee Rich McGrath, in particular, has placed much of the blame on absentee landlords; he refers to Pius as Mr. Potter, the heartless slumlord from the movie "It's a Wonderful Life." The town said that "Take Back the Blocks" is meant to combat absentee landlords.

The cash to renovate the property came from a $1.56 million grant by Restore New York Communities Initiative through the Empire State Development Fund.

To be eligible for the lottery, applicants must be first-time homebuyers as defined by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development department, meaning they can't have owned a home during the three-year period immediately prior to purchase. Applicants must also occupy the property as a principal residence and must not make more than 80 percent of the median income for the area. For example, the income of a family of four cannot exceed $81,450. A single person cannot make more than $57,000.

Applications in both English and Spanish are attached to this article and will be accepted through June 18.

Applications can also be picked up at Town Hall, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 351-2881.

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Comments (1)

Daniel Campbell
9:14am on Saturday, May 15, 2010
Pius Realty does not own any property in Huntington Station. Why does Mr. McGrath and the Town of Huntington think that providing affordable rentals to poor people needs combatting. How can anyone characterize my personality or the condition of the rentals we manage without having been in them or met me personally? How come no one ever mentions the Donald Pius Scholarship Fund which provides a total of$10,000 for five students each year or the fact that I gave the town of Huntington the $1.5 million building that houses the Huntington Station Enrichment Center, while simultaneously settling my lawsuit against the Town of Huntington.What has Mr McGrath given to the town of Huntington besides lip service? Don Pius
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