Cities to Get Funds for Foreclosure-Hit Neighborhoods
Cities with the highest rates of foreclosures will get funds from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program which was funded by Congress with $4 billion.
Florida’s cities will get the biggest share of the funds, with an allotment of $541 million. About eight percent of all housing loans in the state in 2008 were in foreclosure, according to HUD. The city of Tampa will get $13.6 million from the $100 million allocated to the Tampa Bay area. It will focus on four neighborhoods littered with abandoned and foreclosed houses.
California will get the second-largest share of the federal funds, with an allocation of $529 million. Los Angeles, which had 18,018 foreclosed houses, expects to get $33 million. Mercedes Marquez, chief of the city’s housing agency, said his department will focus on ten blocks that had the highest number of foreclosed properties.
Meanwhile, Arizona has allocated $9.6 million of its share of the federal funds to the city of Mesa which had the highest foreclosure rate in the state. About one in 20 homes in the city is in foreclosure.
Ray Villa, chief of the city’s Neighborhood Services Department, said he will focus on the Reed Park district where it is filled with abandoned and vandalized ranch homes.
Like other city housing officials across the country, housing chief Terry Ware of Denver, Colorado, is troubled because his city received only $6 million from the HUD funds. With several neighborhoods pleading for money to clean up their areas blighted with abandoned homes, Ware is looking for a fair formula to divide the money among the neighborhoods. In 2008, the city had a total of 2,000 foreclosed homes.
Democratic Representative Maxine Waters, who backed the Neighborhood Stabilization Program in Congress said the program was designed to help cities acquire and rehabilitate foreclosed properties and then sell them to low-income families.
Related Posts:
- Atlanta Fixes Foreclosed Properties for Sale with NSP Money
- $47 Million From Federal Foreclosure Funds for Nine Detroit Neighborhoods
- Nine Ohio Cities Seek Funds to Fix Foreclosure Properties
- Communities Seek Help for Declining Neighborhoods due to Foreclosures
- Stabilization Program Readies Funds for Florida Foreclosures Rehab
