NEW YORK CITY-Single-family homes weren’t the only housing type severely impacted by the economic downturn, new research shows. According to a new study from Citizens Housing & Planning Council, over-mortgaged and foreclosed multifamily buildings increase the risk of deterioration of nearby buildings and raise costs for private owners and the city in the form of additional Emergency Repair Program expenditures.

The study, commissioned and funded by Enterprise Community Partners, “The Impact of Multifamily Foreclosures and Over-Mortgaging in Neighborhoods in New York City” examines more than 1,100 multifamily buildings across Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens. The study, according to Enterprise, highlights the need to monitor multifamily housing stock and coordinate public and private sector intervention so that the stock may be improved, returned to responsible owners and preserved for another generation of tenants.

“These buildings are in those neighborhoods, potentially threatening billions of dollars of public investment,” Shola Olatoye, deputy director and director of relationship management at Enterprise, tells GlobeSt.com. “That’s the real issue. It is imperative for both the public sector and others to realize they are dealing with the impact of multifamily buildings are not just on those buildings, but as the report rightly points out, the already invested public dollars that are in those neighborhoods.”