HCR Event Helps Clean Up 40 Properties in Village of Monticello

September 20, 2019 – New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas today announced that volunteers participating in the 11th State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) “Spruce Up” event helped to paint, repair, landscape and beautify up to 40 homes and vacant lots in the village of Monticello. Volunteers from local businesses, nonprofit organizations, and municipal and state agencies worked together in neighborhoods over a one square-mile radius, from Broadway to High Street and Jefferson Street to Pleasant Street.

“Our commitment to improving our communities and the lives of New Yorkers goes much deeper than creating and preserving affordable housing and providing low-cost mortgages,” Commissioner Visnauskas said. “Today’s SONYMA Spruce Up event allowed volunteers to step out from behind their desks and grab their paintbrushes, shovels and brooms to show their dedication to making Monticello a more pleasant place to live, work and visit.”

Volunteers from the sponsoring organizations, including the Sullivan County Land Bank, Sullivan Renaissance, Orange County Rural Development Advisory Council (RDAC), Genworth, M&T Bank, and the Mid-Hudson Credit Union painted porches, improved landscaping, repaired railings, cleaned out vacant lots, installed flower beds, power-washed siding and completed other renovations at no cost to residents.

The Monticello event is the latest in a series of neighborhood cleanup events that HCR has led since 2016 across the state. Previous stops included: Albany, Brentwood, Buffalo, Central Islip, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Queens, Troy and Walden.

At the ten SONYMA Spruce Up events held since October 2016, 1,119 volunteers have worked giving facelifts  to 254 homes, cleaning vacant lots, parks, and playgrounds from Niagara Falls to Islip, Long Island, thanks to dozens of corporate, municipal and nonprofit sponsors.

The Monticello Spruce Up was made possible with additional support from the Village of Monticello, Village of Monticello Highway Department and Village of Monticello Police Department.

SONYMA, as part of HCR, has been providing mortgages for first-time, low-moderate income homebuyers in New State since 1970. For more information on the Spruce Up program and SONYMA mortgages, please visit HCR’s website.