The creation of a “vacancyfree” neighborhood on Buffalo’s West Side will be the first major project funded as part of a new program to remedy upstate New York’s abandoned-housing crisis.

A 20-block area west of Richmond Avenue and south of West Ferry Street—once home to 115 vacant structures — will be revitalized with the help of a $500,000 grant announced Tuesday by Gov. David A. Paterson.

The goal is to transform a neighborhood now struggling with abandoned housing into a neighborhood without a single vacant home.

“We think this can be the start of something important,” said Michael Weber, Paterson’s top housing adviser.

The money, part of the first wave of grants from Paterson’s Sustainable Neighborhoods Program, will allow PUSH Buffalo to keep its vacancy-free strategy on track.

The grant will pay for the rehabilitation of three vacant buildings and the demolition of a fourth structure, the latest step in a strategy that has so far resulted in the rehabilitation of 60 buildings.

“This will build on our momentum to create a vacancyfree zone that is quickly becoming a model for community-led green development,” said Aaron Bartley, executive director of PUSH Buffalo.

PUSH has already rehabilitated three buildings and is currently working on seven other properties. Dozens of other vacant homes have been rehabilitated by private owners, City Hall and Homefront, another neighborhood group.

The zone is bounded by Richmond Avenue, West Ferry, Hampshire, 15th and Vermont streets.

“It’s a worthy investment because it could solidify a community that might otherwise spiral downward,” said Michael A. Skrebutenas, deputy commissioner of the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal.

The West Side was not the only city neighborhood under consideration by the state. The others included the Fruit Belt and the neighborhood around Martin Luther King Park.

Skrebutenas said PUSH’s proposal emerged from the pool of eligible projects as a clear front-runner, in part because of the group’s energy, creativity and past performance.

The project will be funded as part of Paterson’s Sustainable Neighborhoods Program, a new initiative designed to help upstate cities devastated by vacant housing.

Nowhere is that crisis more acute than in Buffalo, home to the highest vacancy rate in the state and one of the highest in the nation. Various studies estimate Buffalo’s vacancy rate at between 15 and 20 percent.

“Buffalo’s distinction in New York State is obviously unfortunate,” Skrebutenas said, “and I don’t think the governor wants to preside over that distinction.”

Paterson’s strategy is to address the regional crisis by creating affordable homeowner-ship opportunities by rehabilitating abandoned buildings and making them available to first-time homebuyers.

“Too many abandoned and neglected properties are eroding the quality of life in communities throughout upstate,” the governor said in a statement Tuesday.

In PUSH, state officials think they have a group that can serve as a one-of-a-kind model on how to deal with vacant housing. “Resources are scarce everywhere in the country,” Bartley said. “Any success we have in acquiring those resources in this environment is a positive thing.”

PUSH’s vacancy-free zone is part of a larger “Green Development” strategy that includes the revitalization of vacant lots and public spaces with an emphasis on creating good-quality jobs as part of its investment in the neighborhood.

The project, a collaboration of PUSH, Homefront and the Massachusetts Avenue Project, builds on many of the neighborhood’s success stories, including the urban youth farm on Massachusetts Avenue and the 60 out-of-school young people enrolled in an AmeriCorps training and employment program. Behind it all is the goal of right-sizing the neighborhood so it mirrors its current population and economy and, in the process, becomes a model of green-designed urban revitalization.

pfairbanks@buffnews.comnull