Take over properties with mortgages underwater for the sake of people whose homes went under water

May I suggest an alternative to FEMA trailers for Staten Islanders displaced by Superstorm Sandy? On Staten Island, there are a large number of vacant houses where the owners have effectively abandoned them or the banks can't sell them due to the mortgages being higher than the prices of the houses. Instead of units being empty and thus continuing to artificially raise prices and depress the demand curve, leading to stagnation where properties sit on the market for extended amounts of time, (the true market prices of real estate would have plummeted even further were it not for enforced vacancies and poison-pill properties); the government should commandeer them through Eminent Domain and move displaced persons into them after renovating them to a habitable condition. Staten Island even has an abandoned condo complex which sits empty while large numbers of people need long-term housing!
Should this plan be enacted, I believe that the local problems of real estate economics, neighborhood blight, and displaced persons' problems would be solved. Not to mention there is the possibility of the added benefit of job creation.
Winter is approaching, and in New York, temporary, makeshift housing offers little protection against the extended period of cold weather. My idea offers solid shelter sooner.