I expect the economy to recover quickly under new leadership. 

I want to explore options to at least recover what I invested with them and it’s substantial.

Meaning you cannot just evict a tenant because their lease has expired.You will have to build sufficient evidence admissible in court and to the satisfaction of a judge to prove good cause to get a warrant of eviction.Many housing providers kept high risk tenants on month to month leases so that if the tenant stopped paying rent, you could simply give them a notice to vacate and recover possession of the rental unit that way.The reason for this methodology was because the HSTPA of 2019 passed in NYS made it extremely onerous and costly for housing providers to evict due to non payment.That method under good cause will be eliminated.So you can still keep tenants month to month but you will need to document the lease violation due to nonpayment rigorously.How many times and how late is “good” enough?

Mainstream homeowner policies won't cover sober living because they don't account for the risk of multiple people recovering in the same home

It also would take forever to recover the initial negative equity position.  

No different than towns with hurricanes or tornados or floods which are (sadly) relatively common out east.The economy will recover, some people will move out of state...it will take time. 

If the tenant has a reasonable explanation and a solid plan on how to recover we will work with them.You are asking the right question: how are you planning to pay double rent next month?

It was supposed to offer something like a 15% return, but obviously would pay nothing if no money was recovered. that seems like high risk to me. 

Increased rent $500 per month, cost of renovations $65,000 = 10 years to recover the $65k investment.

If I assume a 1.25 ratio, this scenario would allow me recover more capital than a conventional mortgage.Please let me know your thoughts.