Cincinnati receives $8.3M in HUD funding

The City of Cincinnati has received $8.3 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

As part of HUD's Community Development Block Grant program, the funding provides assistance to state and local governments to acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties to save them from becoming abandoned, crime-ridden, and blighted.

The funding will allow the City to purchase foreclosed and abandoned homes and to rehabilitate, resell, or redevelop them - including land banking - in order to stabilize targeted neighborhoods and protect surrounding property values.

It can also be used to provide down payment and closing cost assistance for low- to moderate-income homebuyers.

The City must use this funding within the next 18 months.

"The HUD funding will provide the City with much needed resources to help citizens and neighborhoods deal with the strain of foreclosures," says Mayor Mark Mallory in a media release. "Our communities are struggling to deal with this national problem, and the new funding will go a long way to help pump energy back into our city."

Program funding is based on a formula that takes into account each city's foreclosure rate.

Of the 13 Ohio cities receiving funding, Cincinnati's foreclosure rate is the second-lowest at 7.1 percent.

Photo credit: "time to buy" by Flickr user TheTruthAbout...

Previous reading on BC:
Dohoney says City collections against banks 'successful' (8/21/08)
AHP wants Cincinnati support for lease buy-back program (7/7/08)
Foreclosure Phone-a-Thon coming up Wednesday (6/2/08)
Foreclosure initiative presented in Cincinnati council committee (5/14/08)
Dohoney recommends $75,000 to explore foreclosure initiative (3/27/08)