California, which is one of the states that took a hard beating from the foreclosure crisis, has awarded about $92.7 million grants to counties and cities to help them prevent abandoned and vacant foreclosed houses from becoming neighborhood blight and haven to criminals.
Out of the $92.7 million, over $3 million will be handed out to the counties of Sutter and Yuba to help renovate foreclosure homes, then rent or sell them.
Yuba County is scheduled to receive about $1.7 million while Sutter County and the cities of Live Oak and Yuba will share nearly $1.79 million from the total federal funds made possible under the Obama Administration’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).
California’s Department of Housing and Community Development will have the tasked of allocating the funds to local governments.
Officials in both counties of Yuba and Sutter viewed the initiative as a significant step towards the fight against foreclosure. They conceded that the more than 20 foreclosure houses that will be covered by the grants would only make a small dent on the foreclosure problem. But they are hopeful that the houses would help address the public housing shortage in the areas.
Yuba County’s Community Development and Services Agency’s administrative and finance manager Sean Powers said that there is a large inventory of foreclosed houses to choose from and the county wants to start immediately the program. Though both counties aim to purchase and renovate dilapidated foreclosure properties, they have different plans on how to fill them.
Sutter County plans to add as many as 15 renovated houses to its inventory of public housing. According to Consolidated Housing Authority program director Gustavo Becerra, the county’s waiting list for its public housing has grown within the two-year economic downturn.
So far, over 2,600 families are on the waiting list for Sutter County’s apartments as the area’s unemployment rate grew to 18 percent.
On its part, Yuba County plans to purchase as many as 10 homes, repair and then sell them to raise funds for more house renovations.
Nationwide, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is set to release $3.9 billion under the NSP to purchase and rehabilitate dilapidated repossessed homes. Counties and cities across the country have the option to use the federal funds for demolition of derelict buildings, land banks, financing and redevelopment of vacant properties.
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