Stimulus funds spruce up Ohio neighborhoods

April 5, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

NEWARK, Ohio

Ohio cities are using federal stimulus money to knock down or remodel old homes in an effort to revitalize aging neighborhoods.

Columbus hopes to remove 64 homes this year as part of $22.8 million in federal funds the city is getting in a first round of the program.

In Newark, officials originally were going to tear down a lot of homes but decided it would be better to rebuild them.

The idea is to turn the homes into places that will attract families, said Dan Coffman, Newark’s coordinator for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

“You don’t tear down unless you have to,” Coffman said. “It’s better for the community and the neighborhood to salvage a home if possible.”

Once a home is renovated, the city sets the price at market value to help stabilize the home prices in the neighborhood.

Low- to mid-income homebuyers can receive a subsidy to help them pay for the home if they agree to certain terms, such as staying in it for 10 years.

Newark already has sold one rehabbed home for $80,000, which cost $70,000 to renovate. With another ready for sale, the city is ahead of schedule in using its federal funds by the program’s September deadline.

While only eight of the planned 160 projects in Columbus are under construction, city officials say their investment in planning last summer will pay off in new work starting soon.

Columbus has collected about 200 properties in the project’s land bank, which helps clear important legal hurdles to reconstruction or demolition.

Demolition bids will soon be sought in nearby Licking County, where the county plans on knocking down 46 homes in five communities with most of the $1 million it received from the federal government.

The process has been slowed by the difficulty in establishing ownership of some of the properties.