California is to receive federal funding in excess of $1.2 billion within a month. While Los Angeles’ share is not clear yet, the funds are to be rolled out in accordance to needs around the state.
Los Angeles City’s housing officials said that they hoped to get some stability into the housing sector with the federal funding that will give them an opportunity to buy foreclosed homes and then sell them.
Los Angeles Housing Department’s general manager, Mercedes Marquez, said that Los Angeles is ahead of other areas when it comes to foreclosure tracking and in development of a program that can supplement what the market is doing.
With around 9,100 houses foreclosure and more than thirty five thousand houses in default, mainly in the San Fernando Valley and South Los Angeles in the last eighteen months, Marquez said she considered this foreclosure crisis to be the most serious problem she’s seen in the housing sector.
Marquez also said that the city would be able to start its programs after determining how much of the federal funding they are to receive. She added that though the department of Housing and Urban Development intends to release funds in a month, it might take a little longer.
Officials from the city said that they are still working on criteria for deciding which houses will be acquired; vacant homes however, will be given priority.
Allocation of the money will have stringent limits, with the higher limit going to households who are 120% over the avg. median income. For people in Los Angeles, families of four could get up to $90,000 and individuals could get up to $71,000, Marquez said.
Richard Alarcon, the City’s Councilman, has suggested that for these purchases, a separate fund should be created. He also said that he’d like to see money being made available to first time home buyers in order to make down payments.
With empty foreclosed homes having an adverse effect on the neighborhood, this move will be welcomed by many.
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HUD Fair Housing Equal Opportunity
