City closer to applying for housing money
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By STEPHANIE M. PETERS Herald Staff - Published: December 5, 2008
Two motions to come out of the Board of Aldermen's community development committee this week should help move Rutland a small step closer to seeing new sources of neighborhood and small-business assistance.
In a meeting attended by the mayor and representatives of the Rutland Redevelopment Authority, the committee supported a strategic plan composed by the RRA.
It will be used to complete an application to the state in an effort to receive a portion of the $19.6 million in funding Vermont is set to receive from the federal government's Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
Created under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the program is intended to offer emergency assistance grants to state and local governments that will allow municipalities to acquire and redevelop blighted, foreclosed or abandoned properties.
On the national level, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has already determined how the program's $3.92 billion will be distributed based on how badly each state was hit in the foreclosure crisis.
It will then be up to the state to divide the funds among the municipalities that submit applications demonstrating their need and a strategic plan.
Vermont is in the process of publishing a consolidated plan outlining guidelines for the funding, and soon after applications should be made available.
With the input of Mayor Christopher Louras, the RRA's Board of Directors has drafted a list of priorities, with which the community development committee was asked to get on board.
"We're just waiting for the application to come out," said Tom Macaulay, executive director of the RRA.
According to Macaulay, the RRA has ranked the three courses of action the funding allows in terms of what they feel is most important to the city. Its first priority will be rehabilitating foreclosed and abandoned properties into low and moderate income home-ownership opportunities.
With those properties that are beyond repair, the city will seek to use the funds for demolition.
The RRA would rather not see the funds used for improvement or expansion of the city's rental housing options, the final priority, since city officials have determined there's a surfeit of unoccupied units, Louras said.
"We've decided that we'd like to be able to pick and choose which properties we want to rehabilitate for rental stock, particularly the ones that are creating blight and have cost the city much time and effort," Louras said. "There are a number of foreclosed properties out there that have not created a problem for the city, and I see no reason why we would want to use these funds to put them back into the rental stock."
In total, Louras and Zoning Administrator James Simonds have identified 33 foreclosed or vacant properties — an even split of single and two-family units. Some of those have also been identified by Health Inspector Pam Petrie as health concerns, including one overtaken by mold, Louras said.
The funding also stands to offer some serious financial relief to the city, according to Louras. Problem properties come to the city's attention through various means — water is shut off, but the city receives reports its still inhabited; or neighbors call about properties overrun with trash — and when they do, "we've got to take action at that point," Louras said.
In one trash pickup arranged by the city, 0.87 tons of garbage bags were removed from a total of four properties that were abandoned by their landlords and inhabited by squatters, he said.
While the city can recoup expenses from the landlords by attaching liens to the properties, it cannot make up the man hours spent on these properties by Louras, Simonds, Petrie and the city attorney.
That too could change soon — for months a proposal addressing abandoned properties has sat in one of the aldermanic committees, but now the administration is set to draft language for board approval that will create a vacant building fee that can be assessed to properties on which the city is expending resources.
It will be modeled after a law in Burlington that attaches a $500 charge to foreclosed properties, but unlike Burlington, Rutland is not looking to go after foreclosed properties that do not require the city's intervention, Louras said.
Also coming out of community development committee this week was a similar motion in support of a resolution that will grant Community Capital of Vermont nonprofit community development status.
The Barre-based organization, which offers financing and grants to micro and small businesses that do not otherwise qualify for traditional bank support, recently made a loan to newly-opened Cold River Frameworks & Gallery on Center Street, and hopes to continue its work in Rutland, according to committee Chairwoman Sharon Davis.
Contact Stephanie M. Peters at stephanie.peters@rutlandherald.com.
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