Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, says legislation she sponsored aimed at tackling the increasing number of abandoned and vacant residential properties has passed the Assembly this week.

“We have seen more and more foreclosed properties in the North Country in recent years due to the recession, and the challenges are numerous,” Russell said. “It's an issue that is on the minds of local elected officials from Watertown to Massena in the 116th Assembly District. They place financial strain on our local governments, reduce the quality of life and negatively impact the surrounding houses and pose potential health risks in our neighborhoods.”

The bill, known as the “New York State Abandoned Property Relief Act of 2016,” would improve early detection and maintenance of abandoned and vacant residential properties (A.6932-A).

The bill would also:

• Expand the existing duty of a mortgagee to maintain vacant residential real property to include “pre-foreclosure” vacant properties;

• Require periodic inspections to determine whether properties secured by a delinquent mortgage have actually been abandoned;

• Allow localities and the Attorney General to enforce the maintenance of property requirements; and

• Create a statewide registry for abandoned residential property under the supervision of the state Attorney General and a toll-free hotline for community residents to report the presence of such properties.

Massena Village Trustee Matthew J. LeBire, who has been working on the issue with code enforcement officials in his community for the past several months, said code officials had filed a report in 2015 indicating there were 159 vacant properties in Massena.

Those properties included 56 that had been foreclosed on and another 25 were being investigated as possibly being in the foreclosure process at the time the report was filed.

That same website reported the number of properties in some stage of foreclosure in other North Country communities in April ranged from 91 in Massena and 42 in Ogdensburg to 22 in Potsdam and 15 in Canton, Russell said.

St. Lawrence County Acting County Treasurer Renee Cole said it is difficult to gauge the number of vacant properties in the region.

She said St. Lawrence County currently has less than 280 properties that owe two or more years of back taxes, with 30 to 35 of those properties being in Massena.

Other zombie property measures passed by the state Assembly this week aimed at protecting homeowners’ rights, including clarifying provisions of law relating to mandatory settlement conferences in residential foreclosure actions (A.1298) and extending the right to challenge the legality of a foreclosure proceeding, allowing that it be exercised at any point during the process (A.247).