The crumminess of foreclosure just keeps on taking.
First, it devastates families. Next it trashes their credit histories. Then it blights the neighborhood.
The federal government’s been trucking bailout bucks to Wall Street, but dithering over whether it should do anything for people losing their homes. This doesn’t play well with folks shooing low-lifes away from empty homes in the neighborhood.
It’s worse in Pierce County than anywhere in the state, with 1 out of 319 homes in foreclosure last month compared to the statewide rate of 1 in 488. That added up to 969 homes in foreclosure in Pierce County.
The state has ranked ZIP codes by foreclosure stress, and neighborhoods in Spanaway, Puyallup, Parkland, and Tacoma’s East Side, South End, Hilltop and South Tacoma landed eight of the top 10 spots.
Now some good news: Help is on the way. It’s federal help, so it won’t be here soon, and it won’t be much. But it’s coming.
On the brighter side, fair housing activists are plotting ways to stretch that money a good long way.
They gathered Wednesday at an Affordable Housing Consortium forum to get the details from Bill Cole of the state’s Department of Community Trade and Economic Development, CTED for short.
The feds have funded the national Neighborhood Stabilization Program to ease the effects of the subprime loan disaster. It’s sending a little more than $28 million to Washington state.
Of that, Pierce County will get $4,692,761, Tacoma $3,083,548 and Lakewood $626,793. That adds up to more than a fourth of the total coming to the state.
Local governments will develop programs to make that money work hard and last long. They’ll submit their plans to CTED, which will check them against federal housing guidelines.
In the spring, the money should be available to buy and rehab foreclosed homes for use as affordable housing. It will help tear down blighted buildings, buy abandoned or foreclosed property, or redevelop vacant property.
And it will be ready to buy foreclosed homes in order to rent or sell them to low-income people.
Those who benefit must have income levels at or below 120 percent of the area median income. A fourth of them must have incomes at or below 50 percent of the median income. That’s to prevent taxpayer funds from fixing up homes for property speculators to snare at bargain prices.
Cole emphasized that this is not a lot of money to remove blight, create jobs and affordable housing, and stabilize hard-hit neighborhoods.
“Given the dollar amount, calling it neighborhood stabilization is kind of a joke,” Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan commented. “It would need another zero.”
“Or two,” Cole replied.
But some creative people in the affordable-housing field have a plan to partner up and keep the money regenerating itself.
The Tacoma Housing Authority has run a successful program that teaches low-income people how to buy and maintain a home. Of the people who took the course, then bought a home as they left Salishan during its redevelopment, not one has had a foreclosure. The Housing Authority has a pool of responsible, low-income potential buyers on standby.
That’s where Seattle-based HomeSight comes in. It would identify bank-owned homes in at-risk neighborhoods, buy them and connect them to Tacoma Housing Authority buyers.
“We hope to build a partnership that will outlast this (federal) program,” said Michael Mirra, executive director of Tacoma Housing Authority.
It’s possible that with bulk purchases, Homesight could negotiate discounts on prices that already are low, said Angela Caesar, Homesight director of homebuyer services.
The money from home sales will go back into the fund to be used to match eligible buyers with affordable houses. And so on.
Yes, Caesar said, the houses are available because someone lost them. A modest $28 million statewide can’t stop that tide of grief.
But it can reduce the damage to the people still left on the block.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.