Land Bank Sets Goal to Acquire, Renovate Houses
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – This year the goal of the Mahoning County Land Bank is to acquire 24 vacant houses and renovate them so they can be sold. It's a step forward from what the newly formed organization accomplished in 2012, noted Debora Flora, executive director of the land bank. That year, the land bank concentrated on acquiring vacant parcels and side lots and building inventory across the county.
"We have a waiting list of about 150 who want houses," Flora told board members at their monthly meeting Tuesday. "We need a mechanism on how to advance that."
The acquisition of vacant lots and side lots will always be a component of the land bank's inventory, Flora said, but it shouldn't command the bulk of its business. "Twenty-four is our target."
Traditionally, land banks acquire parcels as a result of bank foreclosures and then sell or transfer them to new owners who have intentions of making improvements to the site. However, legal procedures often slow the process, and it can take between nine and 12 months before a property is deeded to a new owner.
It's therefore critical that the land bank -- officially the Mahoning County Land Reutilization Corp. -- secure other streams of acquiring new property, Flora said.
"We want to continue to open up the different pipelines," she remarked, emphasizing the importance of building relationships with lenders as well as private property owners. "We have properties coming from multiple streams now."
Thus far, the land bank has acquired two distressed houses in Youngstown that it intends to renovate from lender Wells Fargo Corp. -- one on Shehy Avenue and another on Canfield Road. The lender also contributed cash toward the renovation projects.
Another house the land bank acquired in Ellsworth Township is targeted for demolition.
"The relationship with different banks is important to us,” Flora said, “but we also want to engage the community in some of this rebuilding."
A Do-It-Yourself incentives program, for example, is available to those who want to acquire these houses and live in them, Flora noted. The goal is to increase the quality of owner-occupied and rental housing across the county.
"We want quality housing in all of our communities," she said.
Another priority of the land bank this year is to manage a demolition program funded by a $1.53 million by the office of the Ohio attorney general.
The grant, released in July 2012 along with $1 million in matching funds from the county, targets the demolition of blighted structures in more visible areas of the community, and must be used before this calendar year is out.
However, only $75,000 has been spent to date, and communities stand to lose the remainder if work isn't accelerated, she warned.
"We understood from the start it was an ambitious time frame," Flora explained. "There are certain legal processes that have to be completed in demolition. That's why we were trying to make people aware in the middle of last year of that these are the requirements, that this is what you need to prepare for."
Flora said the office of the attorney general has required that the process be properly documented, including photographs of the structure before, during, and after the demolition. "It's above and beyond what would be the normal scope locally for demolition,” she related, “but it's not impossible, either."
The documentation is necessary for audit purposes, Flora said, adding that the state "wants absolute certainty that the structure is demolished."
Mahoning County isn't the only county finding it hard to spend the grant in a timely fashion, Flora noted. Other communities across the state are experiencing similar delays, leaving open the possibility of the office of the attorney general will extend the program.
However, Flora cautioned that the state will be reviewing progress on the program sometime in July, and will begin estimating what the state should get back.
"We need to see that [demolition] activity pick up, and we need to see it pick up very soon," Flora said. "We want to be in control of the situation. They want that work done."
Flora reported that in its first year -- the organization was incorporated as a nonprofit in March 2012 -- the land bank processed 382 applications for 892 parcels in Mahoning County, and sent 190 qualified applications for 453 parcels to the office of the Mahoning County prosecutor for additional legal work.
"In the last year, we pretty much concentrated on stabilizing. Now we need to be more proactive and strategic," said Mahoning County Treasurer Daniel Yemma, who also serves as chairman of the land bank board. "We need to target areas where it can have the most effect."
In 2012, the organization also collected $30,606 in deposits on various properties throughout the county, Flora reported, and received the first deed to 13 properties earlier forfeited to the state.
"We have a few dozen properties in the land bank's custody right now," she said. "That should grow exponentially in 2013 as more legal cases are completed."
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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