Amanda Mulrain and Steve Connors fell in love with the house next door.

Amanda Mulrain and Steve Connors

It’s not pretty—it is, in fact, quite a daunting project. The house at 288 Hudson Street had been widowed when its owner of more than 60 years passed away. It’s been vacant since 2004. It was struck to the city in 2006. The city has shown the house to 85 prospective buyers; all 85 have walked away.

Mulrain has lived next door to 288 Hudson for nearly five year, and observed the house’s abandonment and decline. She and Connors saw a chance to step in and save it, making a home for themselves into the same bargain.

On May 5 of this year, Mulrain and Connors delivered a letter on intent to the City of Buffalo’s real estate department, expressing their interest in homesteading the decaying house—that is, buying it for one dollar plus closing costs, in exchange for p[rovinding the city with a rehabilitation plan and evidence of the ability to pay for the work.

The response was a combination of stasis, confusion, and chaos. They were told that the had to fill out an application and provide numerous documents. They did, and then they were asked to fill out the same forms and provide the same documents again. They were told the application would take six months to approve, and then another four to six weeks awaiting Mayor Byron Brown’s signature.

The six-month delay would cost them the summer construction season, and in the meantime the house would continue to fall apart. And if a cash offer came to the city in the course of those six months, it would drop their application.

“We’re saying the process takes too long,” Connors said on Tuesday, when PUSH Buffalo members rallied in front of 288 Hudson to call attention to the obstacles ordinary citizen encounter in trying to acquire and rehab city-owned prperties. “We’ve been working on this for a month and we’re in the same exact place we started. It’s no wonder that Mayor Brown is sitting on thousands of properties.”

“We’re just trying to save one house from falling apart the way so many other houses on this street have fallen apart,” said Mulrain.

Read more about 288 Hudson Street, and watch video of the PUSH protest on Tuesday at AV Daily at Artvoice.com.

—geoff kelly