Project Rebuild Act will fight blight here, Brown says

Project Rebuild Act will fight blight here, Brown says

YOUNGSTOWN

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, appeared with local leaders this morning in front of a vacant former Glenwood Avenue bakery to promote the Project Rebuild Act, which he said would create jobs, rehabilitate vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses and stabilize neighborhoods.

The act is necessary to fight the blight that “saps the life out of communities,” Brown said. “It brings a focus not only to the community development needs of communities like Youngstown; it also provides real support for economic development,” he said of the proposed legislation.

“It would expand on the successes of the bipartisan Neighborhood Stabilization Plan, which has made a difference in Youngstown” and surrounding communities, he said.

The act would replace the NSP, which pays for renovation and demolition and is sunsetting Sept. 30, 2013, under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

NSP has disbursed nearly $7 billion in three rounds. PRA would allocate $15 billion, split between a formula and competitive grants.