Massena, Ogdensburg and Gouverneur will receive a combined quarter million dollars from Albany to help combat zombie properties.

Zombie properties are going through foreclosure process, but fall into disrepair. Legal loopholes prevent code offices from taking actions when the properties’ condition falls below local standards.

Ogdensburg will get $150,000, the Village of Massena will get $61,000 and $53,670.50 is going to the Town of Gouverneur.

In August, when announcing the village would apply for the grant, Massena Mayor Tim Currier said the money will pay for managing current zombie properties. That may include creating a database to track them, and increasing hours for a code clerk who now works part-time. He said he also hopes to use some of the grant to prevent properties from going into foreclosure. That could mean helping people better manage their money or find support programs for people with trouble paying.

“Funding through this application will address housing vacancy and blight by bolstering municipal capacity for housing code enforcement, for tracking and monitoring vacant properties, and to develop an innovative program and policies to connect at-risk homeowners to services so they can avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes,” according to a resolution the City of Ogdensburg passed around the same time.

The grants were awarded under the Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative, which the Office of the Attorney General established in July with funds drawn from the $3.2 billion settlement agreement with Morgan Stanley that Schneiderman, as co-chair of the federal-state working group on residential-mortgage-based securities, negotiated in February. That settlement generated $550 million in cash and consumer relief for New Yorkers, according to Schneiderman.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation is overseeing the initiative, selected the grantees; and will be providing technical assistance to the funded municipalities as they implement their plans. The LISC is “a national community development intermediary that specializes in affordable housing, economic development, and community revitalization,” Schneiderman said.