733 Ferry Street will be "green rehabbed" and de-converted
back into a single family home, easing parking on Ferry Street
Posted by: Noel Jones
In the Express Times article below, reporter Ed Sieger explains how the City of Easton's Redevelopment Authority will go about rehabbing two West Ward properties that they have recently purchased through foreclosure. I also wrote about this project in my article on green rehabbing in the first edition of The West Word, which can be viewed by clicking on Downloadable Documents on the sidebar at the right of this home page. The grants are made possible through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a federal funding stream that has trickled its way through HUD and then into our neighborhood through the redevelopment authority, and through CACLV, who has yet to purchase homes for the project, as properties they were hoping to purchase were snatched up by other investors.
Express Times Article by Ed Sieger on West Ward Properties to be Rehabbed by the City
To see a photo of the other West Ward property destined for a make-over, and learn how to apply to purchase one of these newly rehabbed and weatherized homes, click "Read More."
Also slated for a complete renovation and weatherization is 672 Pine Street:
672 Pine Street
These properties will be marketed to middle-class and low-income home-buyers (1 out of 4 homes offered through this program must be offered to someone earning below 50% of average mean income, the rest are targeted for anyone below 120% AMI--see my article in The West Word under Downloadable Documents for a more thorough explanation of the program).
Gretchen Lippincott mentions in the Express Times article that she hopes that there will be enough money left over to do a third house--I should hope so, as the houses together only cost $94K total, and even with the $30K set aside for administrative costs, that still leaves $376K out of the original half-million that has been awarded for this project. I can't imagine that the City will spend more on rehab than it can get in a sale, so there should be plenty left over to do a few more houses.
As one strategy of the program is to renovate houses that are as close together as possible, doing five or six houses in the 600 and 700 blocks of Ferry and Pine could have a substantial impact on that part of the neighborhood.
If anyone in the neighborhood is interested in making the jump from renter to first-time home-buyer, now is your opportunity to contact Gretchen and begin the application process to get into one of the newly rehabbed and weatherized homes!
HOW TO GET STARTED
To apply for the City’s NSP rehab project for first-time home buyers, contact: Gretchen Lippincott, Director, phone: 610-250-6719, email: glippincott@easton-pa.gov
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6 comments:
nice coverage Noel. I hopped I could beat you to it, though :(
my blog about it is here if you care to look:
oops, I messed up the http for my blog (don't hyperlinks work here?)
http://uglyeaston.blogspot.com/2010/02/city-starts-using-grant-money.html
Looks like a good program, thank for the report Noel!
No worries, EHB--I'm often swamped and appreciate anyone putting out the effort to cover important issues and let us know about it!
I can't wait to see the finished products..!
I live on the South Side and we have a house at 540 Berwick St. When the mayor was campaigning I asked what could be done with houses like this that are vacant and blighted. He told me of two programs he would start and the one that fixerd up this house was really neat. The city couldn't get anyone to buy the house, not even for a dollar. So the city put contractors to work and the place today looks great. They will soon be placing it on the market for a single family to purrchase the structure.
My understanding from talking to staff is that they did three other homes this past yeat that are now for sale. The other two are on the 600 block of Ferry Street and 1008 Ferry St.
In speaking to one of the council memebers they say that his program is going to be expanded. I called him and he assured me that they would never become apartments and only single family. He also told me they wwere loking at an apartment home in the West Ward to make it a single family again.
These are the type of housing programs that we need to save our neighborhoods. We should support this program and the other one which I forgot the name of.
Anon 7:16--that's great to hear--could you get me the name of that program and post it? I want to be clear on the different programs so they don't get confused with this one.
thanks for posting!
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