Erie County and the city of Buffalo are working to address what they call an “affordable housing crisis.”

More than $20 million is heading to East Buffalo to transform vacant lots into affordable housing. Of that money, $10 million is coming from American Rescue Plan Act. The money will go to the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement Corp., a nonprofit that works with area communities to buy vacant land and abandoned homes in foreclosure, fix them up and sell them.

"There are quite a number of projects going on across our community for affordable housing that are supported by the city, by the county, by federal community block-grant dollars. But we know that's not enough," Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said. 

A recent analysis of the Buffalo-Niagara region showed it is 17,000 units short of meeting Western New York’s affordable-housing needs.

“Vacant city-owned lots are a key to neighborhood building,” said Mayor Byron Brown. “We will be able to change the look and feel of neighborhoods across the City of Buffalo with these new homes.”

There’s no word yet on which lots will be transformed. But Poloncarz says the goal is to start construction in the next six to nine months.