By Howard Koplowitz
Standing on an Ozone Park block that he said has 12 homes in the foreclosure process, City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D−Howard Beach) criticized Republican state senators for not doing enough to help homeowners.
“Foreclosures are on the rise,” Addabbo said in front of a 106th Street home that has been boarded up and has been in pre−foreclosure since 2006.
He said there were 12 homes affected by the foreclosure crisis on the block and 1,800 in Senate District 15, a seat the councilman is attempting to win from state Sen. Serphin Maltese (R−Glendale).
The district accounts for 14 percent of foreclosures in Queens, Addabbo said, while the borough represents 34 percent of foreclosures in the city.
Addabbo said he was calling on the state Senate “to actively do something about this issue — and they had this opportunity.”
He was referring to Senate legislation to enable the city to clean up homes undergoing foreclosure and giving the clean−up bills to the banks.
“That bill would have helped this block,” he said. “Yet that bill just sits there in the state Senate.”
Addabbo said foreclosures affect surrounding homes by causing property values to decrease.
“So we need to do something,” he said. “We have the opportunity to do something about it.”
Community Board 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton agreed.
“Properties like this have a deleterious effect on everything surrounding it,” she said. “There is an effect on the immediate neighbors. On a block like this, all it takes is one.”
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e−mail at hkoplowitz@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 173.
