Binghamton Housing Rehabilitation Work Underway

Nearly a dozen dilapidated houses in Binghamton's First Ward are being renovated as part of a project financed through federal and state funds.

The structures being gutted and repaired are on Front Street, Meadow Street and Spring Forest Avenue.

The First Ward Action Council is overseeing the project to put eleven rundown houses back into use.

The buildings were constructed during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Eight of the eleven properties acquired for the project were vacant, according to state documents outlining the planned work.

The project is to create a total of 27 apartments in the renovated buildings. Some of the units will be set aside for people whose incomes are below the area median income.

Several apartments are to be made available to people with physical disabilities or those with hearing or visual impairments.

First Ward Action Council executive director Jerry Willard said the current project represents the third phase of the agency's ongoing efforts to upgrade properties in the Front Street Gateway area.

Willard said he expects the renovation work to be completed in about a year-and-a-half. He said some of the apartments in the buildings could be ready for rental by the end of this year.

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