Press release from the City of Fort Wayne:
Mayor recognizes Fort Wayne’s success with Neighborhood Stabilization program, homeownership month
Nearly $5 million invested in vacant, foreclosed properties, making city national model for HUD initiative
(June 11, 2010) – Standing in the front yard of a once vacant house soon to be occupied by a Fort Wayne family, Mayor Tom Henry celebrated the success of the $7.2 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program. He was also joined by officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to proclaim June as Homeownership Month in Fort Wayne.
The City has become a national model for HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program that works in partnership with potential homeowners and private contractors. In less than 18 months, the NSP purchase-custom rehabilitation program invested nearly $5 million in 32 vacant or foreclosed homes in the NSP target area. Many of these homes have been in more established neighborhoods in the center of the city.
From the time the properties entered the program to their closing with new homeowners, the NSP purchase-custom rehab houses saw a collective increase of appraised values of more than 63 percent.
“Joining with Department of Housing and Urban Development officials, I am honored to mark June as homeownership month. There is a reason a home symbolizes the American dream. Owning one helps to strengthen families, enhance neighborhoods and spur private investment in our All-America City,” Mayor Henry said. “The Neighborhood Stabilization Program has been an important tool for encouraging a renewed commitment to our neighborhoods. It has supported local jobs, improved troubled properties and turned houses into homes for Fort Wayne residents.”
Through the program, each homebuyer worked with a private-sector development team to select an eligible property and then rehabilitate it prior to occupancy. The process focused on updating the house and making it safe, more energy efficient and generally more desirable. The NSP funds helped to cover the difference between the market value of the property and the rehabilitation costs.
The City was also able to recirculate funds through first mortgages from buyers who purchased completed NSP homes into additional properties, making it a leader in the nation.
Advancing Mayor Henry’s commitment to community collaboration, the City designed the custom-rehab program in partnership with the Fort Wayne Area Association of Realtors, Fort Wayne Home Builders Association members, Fort Wayne Apartment Association members, Habitat for Humanity and local contractors.
The City is using remaining NSP money to work with the local Habitat chapter to recycle the funding into new homes for their clients.
The City also used $1.1 million of NSP funds to purchase McMillen Park Apartments on McKinnie Avenue. The complex will be demolished to ready the site for future development. Another $800,000 was committed to Promising Partnerships, a collaboration of transitional housing services providers. The group will use the resources to acquire and rehabilitate primarily tax-foreclosed homes, transforming them into rental properties for low-income families.
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