100 Homes Program Meeting Set for July 19th
A public meeting for the 100 Homes Program will be held at 7 pm, July 19th, at United Neighbors. The program is modeled after the Neighborhood Finance Corporation in Des Moines. The program offers financing through forgivable loans for individuals, from any income bracket, looking to purchase homes in neighborhoods. Of course, stipulations will be in place to ensure those dollars are used for re-hab purposes. The goal of 100 Homes is to encourage re-investments in neighborhoods and to encourage economic diversity in our older neighborhoods.
The DM program, over 16 years, has led to 2,600 housing unit re-habs and $148-million of investments in 27 neighborhoods.
Let me know your thoughts or stop by the meeting on the 19th.
Information from the city website:
In November 2006, the City held an informal meeting at United Neighbors to talk about a new idea for a housing finance program. Those who attended learned about how the goal of the program is to encourage economic diversity in one or more low income neighborhoods by providing homebuyer assistance. The concept involved inviting neighborhoods to apply for the program. Then, qualifying buyers who purchase homes in the selected neighborhood(s) would be eligible for down payment and rehabilitation assistance.
Since then, the City Council has allocated $300,000 to this program, now called the 100 Homes Program. The name comes from the goal of providing assistance to 100 home buyers in one or more small neighborhoods over a several year period. Further, 11 lenders have committed funding to the program. The City has formed a Design Committee, which has drafted details about the program, including a draft neighborhood application form and draft program flyer.
More information, click here.
posted by Ian Frink @ 11:50 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Will this program entice more slumlords to buy even more property? This should be considered.
8:09,
The program is for single-family households. The application process will ensure that is the case. Thanks for the post, Ian
Ther needs to be a few "fail-safes" in the program that would insure the people using the program would be owner occupied houses and not those flipping/renting properties
11:19,
One of the stipulations is that the owner lives in the house for 5-years and the residence is single-family. The application form that has been drafted is similar to what Des Moines has been using and it incorporates a fair number of safeguards. Thanks for the post, Ian
One last question. Who will enforce or even follow up on these properties making sure that the guidelines are followed. I don't think the city has the manpower for this and those houses will just "fall through the cracks". Can it be stated that the property owner shall have no other interests in other properties while maintaining these properties? Then what keeps me from having my handyman from living in the house and registering ownership and the bills paid by me? Too many ways to get free money and make money out of this. Can it be restricted to first time buyers only? Just some thoughts.
2:57,
The draft concept right now is for the 100H committee to follow up to make sure the improvements are done; also the work is to be done by licensed contractors. We are looking at maybe 15-20 homes per year, so it should be a manageable number to keep tabs on.
As for having other properties - if the application is limited to folks working on single family home financing and if they are obligated to remain in the house for 5 years ..... this should limit the homeowners' attention to the single property. Thanks for the post, Ian
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