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Long Beach Gets $1.5 Million To Fight Foreclosures by Ryan ZumMallen | Archive | 09.09.10 |
+ 10:20am | After the Long Beach City Council earlier this week agreed to create an ordinance that targets foreclosures, Long Beach received more good news as the city will receive more than $1.5 million in Housing and Urban Development funding to stabilize the community. The HUD Neighborhood Stabilization Program awards money to cities that have been hit hard by foreclosures with the goal of ending abandonment and blight. Los Angeles County and Orange County will receive a combined $22 million, with a total of $149 million spread across California. “These desperately needed funds will be used to purchase foreclosed and abandoned homes in Compton and Long Beach and to help fund neighborhood redevelopment," said Congressmember Laura Richardson (D-Carson), in a statement today. Richardson represents most of Long Beach, and parts of Compton, which also received $1.4 million. Specifically, the money can be used to buy foreclosed and abandoned homes, or for grantees to buy vacant properties for rehabilitation. Low-to-moderate homebuyers can also receive assistance with down payments and closing costs, and counseling will be offered to families receiving homebuyer's assistance. According to a City News Service report posted on the Press-Telegram website today [P-T]: The money can also be used to create "land banks" to assemble, temporarily manage and dispose of vacant land for the purpose of stabilizing neighborhoods and encouraging reuse or redevelopment of urban property. "This summer, one out of every 129 homes in Compton and one out of every 276 homes in Long Beach, were in foreclosure," Richardson stated. "With this money, we will be able to reduce the number of foreclosures in those areas, increase existing home values, produce affordable housing, prevent future foreclosures, revitalize neighborhoods, and create jobs.”
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16 Comments so far.
paintboy and yet still no help for people hundreds of thousands of dollars upside down in their mortgage. They should have used that bank bailout money to pay down people's mortgages to the amount they deflated to... the money still would have gone to the banks in effect still bailing them out and would have helped individual homeowners at the same time. And, it would have gone a long way to stimulating the economy as well because people could afford to buy stuff and wouldn't be so afraid of what the future will hold. The housing market is never going to recover until somebody figures out a way to get prices back relatively close to what they were... people aren't going to sell if they are so far underwater unless they are forced to. In many cases they can't. bonzobonzo AAAGHHH, are you joking?? It is up to individuals to buy and sell homes not the federal govt. Again creating a fake economy, stay out feds!!! Let the market place adjust itself, period. The govt has never done anything to help minorities but keep them addicted to the govt. Education and hard work will keep you out of poverty not the feds! Color Me Skeptical Good luck trying to "stabilize the community" with a puny $1.5 million. Concerned Citizen I find this move completely ironic when Congresswoman Richardson couldn't even make her own payments on her several homes throughout California. I would not be surprised if Richardson takes some of the cash for her own financial missteps. We really need to think long and hard before we consider letting her go back to Washington. She is as corrupt as they get. freewhilly hey bonzo,I worked for Boeing for 24 yrs. was laid off 18 mos. ago and have applied for a ton of jobs with no luck. I have used up my 401 and am lucky the feds gave people like me an extension.I am doing everything I can to save my condo I bought it 5 yrs ago and now waiting for BofA to workout a mod but they keep chaging the rules, what would you do ? A Cyclist $1.5m is nothing. That will buy two or three homes in my neighborhood so how in the world does anyone think it will help all in need? People in office love to waste time talking. CHARLIE Who holds the money and desides who gets paid - HUD? South Bay Dan Oh Boy...more smoke and mirrors. This crap of departmentlizing funds is useless. Change the rules so that this money can be used for General Funds, save some Public Safety Jobs or infrastructure. Thumbs Up NSP2! My partner and I are now amongst the 80 or 90 low to middle income first time home buyers in Long Beach in the process of finding and buying a home through the NSP2 program. While our selection is very limited and the qualified locations are not ideal, still we are extremely ecstatic to have this opportunity to get out of our dead-end rental situation and into an affordable home of our own. Something we would never be in the position to do were it not for something like this program. Is this program going to fix everyone's problems? Of course not. It's not intended to. But it's a good start and a godsend for those of us who can qualify and avail ourselves of it. If there had been programs like this well before the crash, there might have never been one to begin with. Jim T. Another waste of tax payers money Dennis What a crock. More ObamaBux wasting tax payer funds, and Richardson announcing the funds is too ironic. Here comes the money to buy the votes. Richardson's district is chock full of those who take zero personal responsibility or accountability, including her. When will she and the "Great Communicator" realize the more money they have spent to buy votes the worse the economy has gotten? Unfortunately I'm afraid the majority of the geniuses in CA 37th will Ink-A-Vote her for another term. R U Joking? Just another useless waste of taxpayer money so Richardson can claim she is doing a good job. What a joke! Karel And no help for those who may be behind in their payments but could catch up with help and avoid foreclosure? Oh no, help the banks in the name of the neighborhoods ! Blah. Just another bank payout disguised as help that does nothing. thekarelshow.com game is rigged I know lots of people who would like to buy a house in Long Beach but can't afford it. Nice to know the government is using our own tax dollars to keep housing unaffordable. Why not let people buy a house if they want to, for crying out loud. What a crock of sh*t. Dragonflyqueen yes, more 'obamabux'....too bad it won't help the people who really need it....Richardson, a perfect example of what happens when people don't vote! so few actually exercise their right in those areas---this is how she got into Congress====Check out Star Parker---awesome, educated, clever, committed...Wish I could vote for her---don't live in her area....But I believe in her so much that I volunteer to help get her elected ! Anything to get rid of Richardson...what an embarrassment to Long Beach ! free enterprise? I never realized how unholy the alliance was between banks and government, both having a vested interest in unnaturally high home values.
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Ryan ZumMallen has served as the managing editor of the LBPOST.com since 2007. He graduated from CSULB with a degree in Print Journalism in 2008 and is a member of the 2009 class of Leadership Long Beach. You can find him on various basketball courts around the city.
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