The Buffalo News is reporting on two faith communities in Buffalo that are doing the right thing. They are reclaiming a portion of the city most people have written off as drug and crime infested. They are restoring value to a portion of the city where people who own homes have to abandon them. They cannot sell, as many of the properties have a negative value.

Check out the article: On the East Side, growth is at home: 3 new housing developments may be able to transform some moribund neighborhoods

Three new housing developments are popping up in an unexpected place – Buffalo’s East Side.

One development involves the transformation of one of the city’s oldest public housing complexes into a mix of rental properties and market-rate homes or townhouses.

Another plans the transformation of a 16-block area around the Masjid Zakariya mosque on Sobieski Street.

And the third – being built without any government subsidies – includes the construction of 40 suburban-style homes around St. Stanislaus Catholic Church on Peckham Street.

Religious institutions are centerpieces of two of the housing initiatives as faith-based groups get more active in revitalizing neighborhoods.

The projects also are within a mile or two of each other in a part of the city where such activity – no matter who sponsors it – has not been the norm.