Youngstown’s HUD aid isn’t adequate, some say

By David Skolnick

Youngstown has the state’s highest foreclosure rate among larger cities.

YOUNGSTOWN — While appreciative of the $2.7 million the federal government is giving Youngstown to help with the housing crisis, some public officials and residents question why the city isn’t getting more.

Youngstown has the highest foreclosure rate, 14.7 percent, among Ohio’s larger cities during the 18-month period ending in September, according to statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees this program.

But Youngstown will receive one of the smallest allocations from HUD among those cities.

For example, Akron, with a 10.3 percent foreclosure rate, is receiving $8.6 million from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

“The current federal allocation isn’t enough,” said Eva Ladson, a North Side resident who lives on Crandall Avenue in a neighborhood filled with vacant homes. “We are grateful for the $2.7 million. But what we’ve received is like putting a Band-Aid on an open surgical wound.”

Ladson joined other citizens and some public officials in front of a dilapidated house on Mineral Springs Avenue in the city’s Idora neighborhood to point out the city’s desperate need for money to demolish and rehabilitate properties.

Of the seven houses on Mineral Springs Avenue, a small side street off Glenwood Avenue, only two are occupied.

The federal money will also be used to buy foreclosed homes and land, offer down payment and closing-cost assistance to low- to moderate-income homebuyers, and create land banks.

Much of the money to be used by Youngstown will go toward demolishing and renovating property, said William D’Avignon, its community development agency director.

HUD used a formula that includes the actual number and the percentage of declines in the value of homes, housing loans financed by subprime mortgages, housing foreclosures, population and unemployment rates.

The formula benefits larger cities — Cleveland is receiving $16.1 million and Columbus is getting $22.8 million.

“We have the highest foreclosure rate, and we didn’t get enough,” D’Avignon said.

The city is grateful for the $2.7 million but is seeking more money, he said.

Nothing can be done to receive more money directly from the federal government, so Youngstown is turning to the state.

HUD is providing $116.9 million to the state to be spent for this effort throughout Ohio. Youngstown was among 22 cities or counties to receive individual allocations from HUD because of its housing foreclosure problems.

The city needs about $10 million to demolish about 900 residential homes and 100 commercial structures that need to come down, D’Avignon said. It can receive up to $2 million from the state, D’Avignon said.

The city spent about $2.5 million in 2006 and 2007 to demolish about 1,100 buildings, mostly vacant houses.

In order to take down as many vacant structures as possible, the city left alone buildings that would be more costly to demolish, D’Avignon said.

In some cases, it can cost $30,000 just to remove asbestos from some buildings, he said.

That, along with the expense of demolishing large commercial structures, is why the cost of taking down the remaining structures is so expensive, D’Avignon said.

skolnick@vindy.com