HOUSING DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, MICHIGAN STATE

The overall purpose of the NSP2 program is to address the negative effects of abandonment and foreclosure on neighborhoods. MSHDA responded on behalf of the State of Michigan by proposing a Michigan NSP2 Consortium (Consortium) involving 20 other entities (12 municipalities and eight land banks). On February 11, 2010 HUD awarded MSHDA and the Michigan NSP2 Consortium $223,875,339; the largest single award made nationwide under the NSP2 competition. The Consortium members will use this funding to alleviate blight, acquire and rehabilitate homes, and increase land bank capacity. Local governments bring their experience at implementing housing construction, rehab and demolition. Land banks bring their unique powers under Michigan’s model state law, including the ability to acquire, hold, assemble and maintain property, Brownfield credit and tax-increment financing authority, and the ability to quiet title and hold property tax-free for future redevelopment in the public interest. As lead agency, MSHDA will conduct oversight and reporting activities, as well as help local partners build capacity to re-vision neighborhoods in the Michigan economy of the 21st Century. The target area for these efforts includes 93 census tracts in the cities of Detroit, Highland Park, Hamtramck, Wyandotte, Flint, Saginaw, Pontiac, Lansing, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Benton Harbor. In the course of the research for the NOFA response, it was determined that about 16,000 housing units in the target area were vacant, and about half of those were vacant for one year or more. Through the Consortium’s NSP2 plan, approximately 25% of all vacant units will be touched in some way, either through acquisition/rehab or demolition. Specifically the Consortium will use NSP2 funds strategically to acquire foreclosed upon, abandoned, vacant and blighted properties that are located within walking distance to employment, education and health care institutions and HUD’s NSP2 Eligible Census Tracts. In its work under the NSP2 rubric, the Consortium will concentrate on: • Expansion of land banks to purchase and hold properties and produce buildable lots to be conveyed to developers as revitalization plans get implemented. • Purchase, rehabilitation and redevelopment of foreclosed and abandoned property for sale and/or rent to low-moderate-middle income (LMMI) households through acquisition, rehabilitation and homebuyer assistance. • Demolition of blighted and vacant structures. Longer-term benefits of NSP2 will begin to decrease the over-supply of housing caused by population loss and provide working capital to implement coordinated revitalization plans that will create new market opportunities and begin to re-size their cities and re-position their neighborhoods for the economic recovery of Michigan.

Clarification of Codes