The Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority is being criticized for spending hundreds of millions of dollars to redevelop a pair of major public housing complexes, but the agency’s executive director defended those investments Monday as not only the right thing to do for its residents, but also important for revitalizing the surrounding neighborhoods.
“Buffalo has some of the oldest, if not the oldest, public housing stock in the state, and the people who live there deserve an upgrade,” said Gillian Brown, who is not related to Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown.
“People who live in public housing are citizens. They pay taxes. They pay rent. They pay utilities, in one form or another. They contribute to the health of the city,” Brown said. “We’re taking care of the least among us, which is what a housing authority is supposed to do.”
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The BMHA, together with a pair of private developers, is seeking to transform its Commodore Perry Homes and Marine Drive Apartments, which were built decades ago and have not seen major renovations in years.
In the case of the Perry public-housing complex, most of the buildings are currently vacant and boarded up, leaving stretches of Perry Street and South Park Avenue as largely deserted wastelands full of potholes and decay.
The agency is teaming up with Philadelphia-based developer Pennrose on a $200 million rehab of Perry into a mixed-use and mixed-income…
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