County embarks on $23 million program to address foreclosure crisis
San Bernardino County will embark on a nearly $23 million program aimed at revitalizing neighborhoods sacked by the mortgage crisis by providing financial assitance to families who wish to buy foreclosed properties.
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors today approved using $22.7 million in federal funds to establish programs through its Department of Community Development and Housing that will assist qualified families in the purchase of foreclosed properties.
Qualified homebuyers' choices will be narrowed in scope to areas of the county hit hardest by the collapse of the housing market.
Under federal guidelines, the county has 18 months to obligate the funds after receiving the grant, and four years to spend them.
One program would allow eligible families to receive down payment assistance of up to three and a half percent of the purchase price for a property. Another service would provide low-interest loans to families to cover the cost of fixing up properties they are buying.
The county will also, under the program, partner with the Inland Empire Economic Recovery Coporation (IEERC) to buy foreclosed properties, renovate them and then sell them to qualified families, said Mitch Slagerman, director of the county Department of Community Development and Housing.
The IEERC is a recently formed public-private partnership between San Bernardino and Riverside counties and private investors. The nonprofit's goal is to stabilize the local economy by purchasing foreclosed properties, revitalizing them and then reselling them.
Forty-seven percent of San Bernardino County communities are eligible for the program, Slagerman said.
From Jan. 1, 2006 to present, banks have foreclosed on 39,119 homes across the county and issued mortgage default notices to 95,245 people, said Paul Herrera, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Economic Development Agency.
The county is seeing a monthly average of 5,000 notices of default being sent out to homeowners. In February, 4,822 homeowners received such notices, Herrera said.
"That's the most we've ever recorded in the history of the county," Herrera said.
Among the areas being hit hardest by the mortgage meltdown are the cities of San Bernardino and Fontana and the High Desert.
"The foreclosure crisis has disrupted many lives and neighborhoods and the vacant homes left in the aftermath must be occuppied in order to prevent further damage to neighborhoods," said Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, whose district includes the High Desert.
With the passage of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, $3.92 billion in emergency assistance was allocated to address abandoned and foreclosed homes. Of that amount, the county received the one-time grant of $22.7 million.
The county is preparing to launch in the next week an interactive Web site that will post maps showing all the areas of the county hit hardest by the mortgage crisis. It will serve as a navigtional tool to members of the public interested in purchasing foreclosed properties.
For further information on the program and the Web site, contact Paul Herrera at (909) 387-9809.
Leave a comment