Neighborhood Stabilization Program in Orlando to Tackle Foreclosure Related Problems

October 21st, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosed Homes

Over three hundred state and local government representatives from allover the state met on Thursday 16th October in Central Florida to hear about the disbursement of $3.9 million in the ‘neighborhood stabilization program’. The funds will be coming from HUD. Florida and California have been the two worst hit states in the raging foreclosure crisis. They have been apportioned one out of every four dollars that will be spent. The programme had been initiated earlier in the year.

Orlando Foreclosures In Florida the second largest beneficiary will be Orlando. An amount of about $28 million will be granted out of the $541 million that will be utilized for the entire state. Orlando as well as other communities will be granted few more millions either directly or as part of the share of the state.

Mitchell Glasser of Housing and Community Development in Orange County remarked that it is a ‘monumental’ move. The meeting was held throughout the day in Sheraton Safari Hotel in Lake Buena Vista. Glasser added that they have a plenty of work to execute.

The fundamental plan is to recover of the worst of the foreclosed stock of houses, refurbish and repair these and put it up for sale as affordable units that can either be sold or used as rentals. The houses that are derelict and beyond repair would be bulldozed and razed to the ground.

Local governments will be encouraged to create “land banks” by taking off these units from the market until the demand rises. Other novel steps will be taken that will be overseen by HUD officials.

Stan Gimont of HUD said, “We’re working our way along.” Broad guidelines were laid out together with other specialists following the lines laid down by Congress. Of these a short deadline of 18 months has been set to see that the sanctioned money is fully utilized.

The deputy assistant secretary for grant programmes for HUD, Manuel Ochoa told the participants that the focus should be on the pockets that have been hardest hit by foreclosures. The work is scheduled to be done with block grants partnering with non-profit community bodies. HUD officials however agreed that many questions will come up the answers to which might not be found in the legislation. One big question is that of ‘squatters’. The query was whether the grant money could be utilized to relocate them.