The city of Rochester is launching a new pilot program aimed at getting derelict properties into the hands of low-income homebuyers in the hopes that they will fix them up.
The program, dubbed Rehabilitate the Dream, is a collaboration between the city, the Rochester Land Bank Corp., and HOME Headquarters.
To qualify, a person must make less than 80% of the area median income and agree to live in the house for at least 15 years, or less than $77,600 for a family of four. The intent is to offer houses with favorable mortgages and access to construction services.
There are currently three houses available through the program—72 Weyl St., 108 Weld St., and 236 Weaver St. Each has a minimum mortgage requirement of $120,000.
“Often what we’ll do is take a home and tear it down,” Mayor Malik Evans said at a news conference Thursday. “What we're saying with this program is we want qualified buyers to get help with the acquisition in rehab and mortgages with favorable terms, as well as subsidies and construction management support on some of these homes that might be vacant, might be a little derelict, but with a little bit of help and a little bit of vision, we can turn those existing structures into great places for people to live.”
The program is meant to help meet the requests of the Rochester Housing Quality Taskforce. That 21-member taskforce was developed in 2022 as a means to meet rising costs of housing in the city, and the shortfalls in affordable housing.
Housing prices have not slowed down since then. For renters, the average fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment sits at $1,149 in the Rochester metropolitan area, according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. That’s up 48% from 2020.
Meanwhile, the median sale price for a single-family house in Rochester has nearly doubled in the past few years, from $106,500 in March 2022 to $197,500 in July 2025, according to data from the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors.
Carol Wheeler is co-chairperson of the taskforce. She said the new pilot, along with other programs like the Buy the Block initiative and upping code enforcement, are key to building a sustainable housing market in the city.
“We're building on investment,” Wheeler said. “We're not doing things in isolation. We're not building islands. But we're helping to build neighborhoods and community.”
Since 2022, the city reports that it has seen about $1.5 billion of investment into developing affordable housing units. That has translated to just over 3,000 apartments, houses or other housing units.
That translates to about one new unit of affordable housing generated for every $500,000 in development cost – an all-inclusive figure that includes purchase, all professional fees, and all construction-related expenses.
Evans noted it's expensive to build affordable, if the city wants it to be of decent quality.
“The key word is quality affordable housing,” Evans said. “We're not going to build houses like we did back in the day when we had Hanover housing or the old Genesee Gateway. There should be no difference between the house that you live in, whether or not you live in Pittsford or wherever you live, or if you live in Rochester.”
