City to buy, destroy blighted buildings

Thursday, July 9, 2009
By Brian Mosely

Shelbyville has been awarded a grant of over a quarter million dollars that will be used to get rid of blighted structures around town.

According to city planning and codes director Kip Green, the $326,023 grant is from the National Stabilization Program (NSP), part of Phase I of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, also known as the first "stimulus package" that was signed into law by former president George W. Bush.

Green will be attending classes beginning today to learn how to administer the grant, for which the city applied in April.

With the grant, the city can purchase blighted properties around Shelbyville within specific guidelines, demolish them, and prepare the lots for other homes to be built.

The way the grant is written, the city has partnered with the Shelbyville Housing Authority and, once the building is torn down, the property will be turned over to the Authority.

Then, the Shelbyville Housing and Development Association (SHDA), a non-profit established by the Authority, would buy the cleared lot at a discounted rate.

The NSP grant calls for placing a family whose financial status meet the criteria of earning 120 percent or less of the average median income. Working along with Habitat for Humanity, SHDA would build a residence while helping the families acquire the needed financing.

Green said about 25 locations in Shelbyville could be considered "blighted," but the city will only be able to take care of six of these properties with the grant.

The grant is "very specific" and the structure to be torn down must be within a residential neighborhood.

Some homes have been targeted on Bethany Lane, others are on Jackson Street on the west end of Shelbyville and one home being looked at is on Earnhart Street, Green said, but he added he did not know how the list would finally work out.

Once Green is briefed on the grant process in this week's class, he will contact the city's appraisers, and then contact the owners of the blighted properties to see if they are willing to sell them to the city.

According to information from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, NSP funding is provided by a formula based on areas with the greatest number of home foreclosures, areas with the highest percentage of homes financed with sub-prime mortgages and areas identified as likely to face a significant rise in the rate of home foreclosures.

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Finally! Clean the city up :)

-- Posted by darrick_04 on Thu, Jul 9, 2009, at 7:14 PM

too bad they can't find money for public transit, so people can go buy food, get jobs and keep them, maybe even see a doctor, and then there is to be able to run errands....

-- Posted by beachedtn on Fri, Jul 10, 2009, at 12:45 PM

the greatest blight suffered by Shelbyville is Kip Green. Anyone ever get a straight answer as to why he's no longer preaching? Get the subhuman morons out of the way of the citys growth.

-- Posted by big daddy rabbit on Sat, Jul 11, 2009, at 9:20 PM