If you missed the following DMN story, you may have seen the GREAT Homes cover story in the latest Garland City Press . Through the program, Garland is seeking to simultaneously tackle several challenges: foreclosures, neighborhood decline, need for greater energy efficiency, and affordable housing.
 
Council received an update on the program recently from Becky King, director of organization development, and Martin Glenn, assistant city manager. That presentation can be viewed online (Item 2b) at the city's streaming video site. For those interested in the program, I strongly encourage you to watch the presentation.
 

GREAT Homes program is directed toward the "middle market."

The program originally sprang from the availability of federal grants and a spike in foreclosures. The vacated properties were often growing nuisances, suffering from poor maintenance and crime, which impacted surrounding owners and devalued their property. GREAT Homes is designed to increase the city's long-term competitiveness by addressing aging housing stock, energy conservation needs, enhancing catalyst areas, and protecting prior city investments in neighborhoods. The program will help stabilize neighborhoods and promote re-investment by homeowners and developers.
 
The program uses several criteria to determine which and where houses will be purchased and rehabilitated. The object is to maximize impact and success by targeting the "middle market."
 
The program was initially set toward four neighborhoods but the drop in available foreclosed homes as noted in the DMN article has broadened the focus some. The plan is to refurbish 40 to 50 homes. Criteria includes homes near the median price in the area, at least 20 years old, and would have a high visual impact. One desired change would be to add central heating and air conditioning and other efficiency upgrades for purchased homes that are without.
 
The District 1 neighborhood identified for initial participation in the program is the greater Carriagehouse area.
 
Although not outlined, program funds could be used to remove a nuisance and "land bank" the property. One possibility once the property is city owned is to use the lot for a community garden, another program started this last summer that allows the use of city-owned property for gardens maintained by a neighborhood. (Community gardens will be the subject of a future post.)
 
For more information, contact Scott Bollinger at 972-205-3868 or sbolling@ci.garland.tx.us.
 

From the Dallas Morning News:

Garland encouraged by foreclosure program

12:00 AM CST on Thursday, December 3, 2009
By RAY LESZCYNSKI / The Dallas Morning News
rleszcynski@dallasnews.com
 
Garland has a $3.3 million program to buy, renew and help secure ownership of foreclosed houses in eight targeted neighborhoods in its GREAT Homes Program.
 
Revitalizing homes revitalizes neighborhoods, as a foreclosure devalues every house within one-eighth of a mile by $5,000, according to the Center for Housing Policy.
 
But state and federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants in the program are restrictive, and city officials have learned the bank foreclosure market to be less dreary than you might think.
 
"What has happened since the beginning of the year is that banks have been encouraged to slow the foreclosure process down," said Becky King, city director of organizational development, the person most closely connected to the program.
 
Until the last couple months, fewer foreclosures were hitting the market as banks worked to keep owners in their mortgages. And when they do hit the market, private investors seeing a profit in the foreclosure game are often outbidding the city.
 
To this point, the city has acquired three homes and has rejected five other prospects mostly because of funding restrictions.
 
Council member Larry Jeffus sees the slow pace as good news.
 
"I'm encouraged by the fact that the houses are being picked up and not being left vacant, whether it's an investor or the city coming in," he said. "The fact that we're being outbid simply means that private money is beating out government money, and I don't see that as a problem."
 
Offers on six other homes are pending, and the city team, including two real estate agents, is active every day, Assistant City Manager Martin Glenn told the City Council.
 
"We're attempting to utilize the funds that are available because there is a timeline here," Glenn said.
 
The state money has to be earmarked by April, Glenn said, and federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants by December 2010.
 
Two of the city's three buys are 47-year-old homes valued at about $100,000 in the Walnut neighborhood. Council member Barbara Chick pointed also to ground broken on a recreation center there and renovated business sites to show the home renovation within a larger scope of neighborhood redevelopment.
 
"I would think the updates and renovations that are going on would make this area more attractive to those that want an affordable home," she said. "For tract homes, these are really well built."
 
GREAT stands for green, revitalized, energy-efficient, affordable and tailored for ownership. Another $561,000 in grants is available to owner-occupants of single-family homes connected to energy-efficiency upgrades.
 
"We looked at various things from predicted foreclosure activity in a neighborhood to the price," King said. "We wanted to make sure the homes are homes that will be options for the targeted buyers with the financing."
 
Potential buyers must be approved for creditworthiness, and their household income must not exceed 120 percent of Dallas-Fort Worth area median income.
 
The city plans to have the first of the renovated homes ready for sale in April. At its open houses, the city will invite neighbors to demonstrate how similar tract homes in the areas can be renovated.