Foreclosure initiative presented in Cincinnati council committee

A new initiative meant to place foreclosed properties back into the hands of homeowners was presented before Cincinnati City Council's Vibrant Neighborhoods Committee yesterday.

The Neighborhood Homes Initiative (NHI), to be administered by the recently established Greater Cincinnati Redevelopment Partnership, Inc., will act as a wholesaler of foreclosed homes, working with community development corporations, urban redevelopment corporations, and private developers to ensure that the properties are demolished, rehabilitated, or put back on the market.

These properties would be acquired from lending institutions, who find themselves with excess inventory and a depressed housing market.

The program, which will utilize the $1.25 million foreclosure fund allocated in the 2008 city budget, will also contain a new homeowner training component.

"The foreclosure crisis is expected to get worse over the next several years, and this is an aggressive approach to dealing with it," says Councilmember Roxanne Qualls, who introduced the motion. "It will allow the city to take a focused, targeted approach to the crisis, and to maximize new resources from the state and other sources as they become available."

The City expects that NHI will be able to acquire more than 100 homes a year by the time state funding becomes available through Hamilton County.

City administration has recommended that council contract with Homesteading and Urban Redevelopment Corporation to develop a business plan for the new program.

This contract would be funded with $75,000 from the Neighborhood Property Redevelopment program and would last no longer than six months.

Local organizations supporting the initiative include the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, First Suburbs Consortium of Southwest Ohio, Faith Community Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, the Community Development Corporations Association of Greater Cincinnati, and Camp Washington Community Board, Inc.

City Council has not yet adopted the motion, and it hasn't been placed on their agenda.

The other eight council members support Qualls' motion.

Previous reading on BC:
Dohoney recommends $75,000 to explore foreclosure initiative (3/27/08)
Cincinnati council wants Neighborhood Homes Initiative (2/22/08)