Shrinking Cities in Michigan

Dan Kildee may be moving on from the Genesee County Land Bank, but his ideas are spreading.

Vince Bond Jr. of Great Lakes Echo reports:

Time could be running out for abandoned and dilapidated homes plaguing the property values of some Michigan neighborhoods.

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MHSDA) is seeking $290 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for its New Michigan Urban Neighborhood plan targeting the 12 largest municipalities, including Lansing, Detroit, Highland Park, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.

Others target areas are Pontiac, Wyandotte, Hamtramck, Battle Creek, Flint, Saginaw and Benton Harbor.

The projects would revitalize neighborhoods by renovating or demolishing abandoned houses while improving the potential for private businesses looking to open shops in thriving areas, said Rick Ballard, director of the MSHDA office of community development.

If the plan is funded, about 6,000 abandoned, foreclosed or vacant properties will be acquired and redeveloped, 2,500 structures will be torn down, and 1,500 homes will be built or rehabilitated.

Fed Money Flows to Flint

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is handing out $3.9 billion nationwide to help alleviate the foreclosure meltdown. Genesee County's getting $11.7 million. You'd think the money might be used to assist homeowners who are facing foreclosure, right? Well, not exactly.

Joe Lawlor of The Flint Journal reports:

"Nancy Jurkiewicz Rich, the director of the city's Department of Community and Economic Development, said the city will use the money to focus on downpayment assistance and demolitions. The city plans to hire a consultant to help with the grant.

"'For Flint housing rehabilitation is not going to be the highest priority due to the age of the housing stock,' she said."

Wait a minute. Is this really the time to help people who can't come up with a downpayment buy a house? Isn't that one of the major factors that got us into this mess in the first place? Even better, the city's going to pay a consultant to tell them how to do it.

Wouldn't it make more sense to help the folks already in a house keep their home?

House poor

It's not easy for Michigan homeowners who are struggling with their mortgage to find relief these days, but The Columbus Dispatch reports on some small changes that might help. Of course, compared to the proposed Wall Street bailout, it ain't much:

"If the $700 billion mortgage-lender bailout leaves you shaking your head, wondering when struggling homeowners will get theirs, consider this:

"Homeowners got some help more than a year ago.

"It was far less dramatic than today's proposal, and a Dispatch analysis of the latest data shows that Ohioans' share is shrinking.

"The help arrived in 2007, when the federal government pushed lenders to rewrite mortgages for people in danger of losing their homes. But those efforts have shifted from long-suffering states such as Ohio to hot properties in California, Arizona and Florida.

"The good news: more help could be on the way.

"The 451-page bailout approved by the Senate on Wednesday includes new lifelines for homeowners. One would require lenders and mortgage servicers to offer reasonable modifications for any loan that ends up in government hands.

"Moreover, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced new incentives Wednesday for lenders to rewrite troubled loans -- although the 'Hope for Homeowners' program, like most others, is voluntary.

"More than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage -- a record 9 percent -- were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June as damage from the housing crisis worsened, the Mortgage Bankers Association said last month."