Cincinnati council wants Neighborhood Homes Initiative

Citing the lack of a broad-based fund for dealing with the local foreclosure crisis, all nine members of Cincinnati City Council have signed a motion to establish the Neighborhood Homes Initiative (NHI).

The NHI program would assemble community development corporations (CDCs), urban redevelopment corporations, private developers and lenders to allow them to demolish, rehabilitate, or re-market foreclosed properties.

The Greater Cincinnati Redevelopment Partnership, Inc., would be established to act as a wholesaler of the properties and would be funded with $1,245,000 from the 2008 Biennial Budget update's foreclosure fund.

The non-profit would be overseen by a board of trustees including representatives of City and county government, neighborhood leaders and financial institutions.

The goal of the program is to get the properties out of the hands of banks and investors and into the hands of homeowners, who will likely be subject to deed restrictions requiring them to live in the property for a certain number of years.

The NHI proposal also names as goals:

* Achieving results of scale by acquiring over 100 homes per year, thereby making a significant impact
* Creating systemic change instead of the current "band aid" approach
* Applying a collaborative approach by working with both the county and CDCs
* Using a focused, targeted approach to identify areas where the program will make the most impact
* Making the program as open to participation as possible
* Implementing strong selection and training criteria for new homeowners

The motion is currently in committee with no timetable for a council vote.

Eventually, the City would like to partner with Hamilton County to bring more state and local resources into the fold.

While the county has shown some interest in joint sponsorship of the NHI program, it has not committed any resources.

In Hamilton County, over 6,500 foreclosures were filed through December 2007, compared to 4,727 in 2006.