County in line for $1.6 million in blight funds
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ELYRIA — Lorain County will receive about $1.6 million in federal neighborhood stabilization funds, county officials said Wednesday.
The money will be used to fund the acquisition of abandoned and blighted properties, which can then be demolished or rehabilitated, county Community Development Director Don Romancak said.
Exactly how the money will be divvied up throughout the county and the precise rules that will govern how the money will be spent have yet to be released, Romancak said.
County Economic Development Coordinator Pat Metzger said once those rules are in place the county will come up with a formula to spread out the funding.
“We do know it’s countywide, and we want to be as helpful as possible,” Metzger said.
Wednesday’s award to Lorain County was part of $1 billion in new neighborhood stabilization funding announced nationwide by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Previous grants in the program were announced in September 2008 and January 2009.
About $51 million of the latest round of money will come to Ohio, according to news releases from HUD and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon.
“These grants will support local efforts to reverse the effects these foreclosed properties have on their surrounding neighborhoods,” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a news release. “We want to make certain that we target these funds to those places with especially high foreclosure activity so we can help turn the tide in our battle against abandonment and blight.”
This isn’t the first time that Lorain County has received federal money for neighborhood stabilization work.
Lorain County Administrator Jim Cordes said Lorain and Huron counties have split approximately $1.7 million in neighborhood stabilization money.
Cordes said it was too soon to know exactly how the latest round of funding will be able to be used or which communities will share it. He also said he didn’t know exactly when the money would arrive in the county’s coffers.
Elyria has been given nearly $2.5 million in the funding in the past, according to HUD’s website.
Lorain received about $3 million under the program in the past as well and has been using the money to tear down or repair blighted buildings in the city.
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.
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