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Y! MyWebCity plans to use $2.27 million federal funds to stabilize neighborhoods
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Springfield, Ohio — City officials are working on a proposal for using federal funding to help stabilize local neighborhoods most affected by home foreclosures.
The city will receive $2.27 million in funding from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to assist with a neighborhood stabilization program. But the city must finalize a proposal on how to spend the money by Dec. 1, meaning the formal proposal must be adopted at the Nov. 21 budget meeting. The federal program is in response to record-high home foreclosures rates across the country.
In a presentation to the city commission on Tuesday, Oct. 7, Community Development Director Shannon Meadows offered preliminary data on neighborhoods and census tracts that have been most impacted by recent foreclosures.
Meadows proposed using some of the funds on rental-rehab programs, whereby the city would purchase and rehab homes that have been foreclosed on, then sell them to social service agencies, which would rent them to their clientele.
She also recommended a rehab-resale program, in which the city would purchase some homes that are in relatively good condition but sit empty because of the stagnant housing market, and then resell them.
In an interview before the presentation, Meadows said that the city's housing market is oversaturated and that a portion of the funding would have to be used for demolition.
"There are more houses than there are people to live in them," Meadows said. "It makes sense to remove some of that stock."
In other business, the commissioners also:
• Agreed to commence an eminent domain lawsuit for a parcel of land at 422-424 W. North St, owned by Jason Jenks. The city had offered Jenks $104,000 for the property.
• Agreed to pay a negotiated purchase price of $35,000 to owners Norman and LaDonna Lowe for a residential lot at 506 N. Yellow Springs St. in order to make way for the planned hospital.
• Agreed to pay a negotiated purchase price of $265,000 to owners Philip and Joyce Lind for 40.1 acres at 6104 Springfield-Xenia Road that adjoins Airpark 2.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0367 or ecavallaro@coxohio.com.
