LORAIN — The city has purchased 14 properties with federal funds meant to remove blight from the city.

Nearly half of the properties are in central Lorain on Beech Drive and the area around Central Drive. The remaining properties are scattered throughout the city.

The Community Development Department is also bidding on between 30 and 40 other properties, said Service Director Robert Gilchrist who is also acting Director of community development.

“I feel that it’s a great tool the city can use to redevelop itself,” Gilchrist said.

The city received $3 million in federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds in the spring and has applied with other municipalities for another $20 million in funding through NSP Phase II.

Gilchrist said the city hasn’t received word yet on whether it will get more money for the blight program during phase two.

Lorain, Elyria, Vermilion, Sheffield Lake, Lorain County Community Action Agency and Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority all bid on phase two funding together as one entity and will divide any proceeds.

None of the applicants would have qualified for phase two funding on their own so they banded together to apply.

In order to qualify for purchase through NSP, the homes must be in foreclosure.

Five of the 14 homes already purchased are slated for rehab — something the city can do to prevent blight. It can then resell the properties under fairly loose financial guidelines that will make them available to low-to-moderate income families.

The city cannot make a profit on the sales. A family of six making $72,000 a year, for example, would qualify for purchasing one of the rehabbed homes.

Land-banking the vacant lots after demolition or rebuilding on those lots is another possibility, Gilchrist said.

Somewhat complicating the process, however, is the city keeps finding itself in multiple-bidder situations on some of the homes. A Lorain renter, Tom Hutchinson, bid on a foreclosure on King Avenue in Lorain, but lost out to the city.

Hutchinson said at the time he thinks the city should have backed off when it learned residents were trying to win the home. Gilchrist said the process is meant to be anonymous and even if the city had backed out, there was no guarantee Hutchinson would have gotten the home rather than a landlord.

Demolition dates haven’t been set, Gilchrist said, adding the city is still compiling bid specifications.

The NSP phase one money must be encumbered by approximately the end of 2010 or be returned.

To be demolished

• 2325-2327 Beech Drive
• 2335-2341 Beech Drive
• 836-842 Central Drive
• 820-826 North Central Drive
• 2311 E. 31st St.
• 2324-2326 Beech Drive
• 1218 W. 10th St.
• 2238 Leavitt Road
• 1105 North Ridge Road

To be rehabbed

• 333 Indiana Ave.
• 3322 McKinley St.
• 314 W. 32nd St.
• 1105 W. 10th St.
• 2105 W. 11th St.

Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.

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