"C'mon Dad, can we please stop and experience urban blight? It's only a mile away. Pleeeease?"
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced the third disbursement of funds under the Obama Adminstration’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Four billion dollars in funds were distributed in September 2008 with an additional $2 billion following in January 2009.
The purpose of the the program is to “provide targeted emergency assistance to state and local governments to acquire, redevelop or demolish foreclosed properties”.
In the press release, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan commented:
“These grants will support local efforts to reverse the effects these foreclosed properties have on their surrounding neighborhoods,” said Donovan. “We want to make certain that we target these funds to those places with especially high foreclosure activity so we can help turn the tide in our battle against abandonment and blight”.
The interesting thing about the NSP is that it gives states lots of leeway to determine how they want to go about attacking blight. Although the amount of money is relatively paltry in comparison to the scope of the foreclosure problem, it allows local governments to experiment with novel solutions that may work locally instead of nationally.
One of the most challenging things about the foreclosure problem is that it is unlikely there is a cookie-cutter approach that will work on a national basis. Real estate markets are characterized by their provinciality. A program that would be effective in curing foreclosure and vacancy in Florida might not work in Oregon. Further, a program that might work in Sarasota might not work in Tallahassee due to the uniqueness of virtually every market. This program allows local governments to find solutions that they feel are most appropriate for their locality. With luck, someone will happen upon a solution that works in their community that may be adapted for use in other communities across the nation. At least that is the hope.
According to Donovan, 95 percent of all NSP money is in use buying, renovating, or demolishing foreclosed or abandoned properties.
Loading ...
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment