COLUMBUS, OH - One of the nation's largest banks has given $50,000 to a Columbus housing organization to help it secure a portion of more than $22 million in neighborhood revitalization help headed to city coffers. Citigroup Inc. is giving $1 million to groups in 12 cities, including Columbus, to help them prepare for a wave of federal aid. Funding went to the Columbus Housing Partnership to help the group study how it can work with the city to make the best use of the area's share of government money to fix up communities hit by foreclosure.
The funding will help the affordable housing developer take a deeper look at the challenges facing the city's neighborhoods, said Amy Klaben, the group's CEO. A comprehensive analysis will determine which neighborhoods are most in need, she said. "It'll go toward enabling us to have the staff time available to do the planning we need," she said. "That will help us in the next step, which is applying for funds from the city of Columbus."
The $3.92 billion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development was provided for in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, a measure aimed at stemming the foreclosure crisis that was signed into law July 30. The funding can go toward a variety of uses, including the purchase and rehabilitation of houses and the demolition of blighted structures.
Counties and cities across the state are set to divide $116.9 million. Franklin County was allocated $5.4 million. The funding represents a windfall for communities dealing with foreclosure problems, but also presents a huge challenge, determining how best to use the money and in which neighborhoods, said Donna Hunter, administrator for Columbus' land redevelopment office, which hopes to use some money to buy vacant properties for rehabilitation and redevelopment.
HUD has given municipalities until Dec. 1 to submit a plan for the money, a time line that will force city officials and housing advocates to begin preparing plans immediately, Hunter said. "That is a big challenge," she said.
Meanwhile, the state's foreclosure tally continues to mount. Ohio saw 93,757 foreclosures this year through August, up 2 percent from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based provider of foreclosure data. Franklin County tallied 6,926 foreclosures through September, up nearly 9 percent from the same period last year, according to court records.
Citigroup picked the cities where it would offer its grants based on need and the ability of the nonprofits to best use the federal money, said Eric Eve, the New York-based bank's senior vice president of global community relations. "You have one of the best such nonprofits in the nation in the Columbus Housing Partnership," he said. "So Columbus met both criteria, and that wasn't the case in every city."
A Cleveland nonprofit also received Citigroup funding, as did organizations in Detroit, New York, Pittsburgh and Charlotte, N.C. The bank's goal was to release its grants quickly so nonprofits could begin to research how they might make use of the federal funding, Eve said. "They can then leverage this money to access more grants," he said, "and participate in this $4 billion block grant package."
Source: Business First of Columbus