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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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.Wonder if he will play developer in these cities too?
Read previous thread.
Center for Land Reform to aid blighted urban areas
By JEFF KAROUB
Associated Press Writer
DETROIT — A new group aiming to tackle the growing problem of vacant and abandoned property in hurting urban centers says it can maintain its mission and keep its credibility from a perch in the nation's capital.
Dan Kildee promises his nonprofit organization, whose working title is the Center for Land Reform, will do so by remaining rooted in its home community of Flint, Mich.
Planted in community
The longtime Democratic politician, who helped create the Genesee County Land Bank in 2002, said the new center's Flint office appropriately will occupy space in a historic downtown hotel that the land bank helped bring back from the brink.
"The U.S. doesn't need another Washington-based think-tank," Kildee said. "We need to have our feet firmly planted in communities that are facing this problem head-on. Flint really is, as much as any other community in the country, a good place for us to be to continue to keep our work relevant."
That work includes providing government and nonprofit leaders with ideas, research, training and other forms of assistance on land use issues. One primary goal is to help craft a national response to property abandonment and neglect in many cities and put that land back into productive use.
Kildee said Michigan is a leader in the area of land use because of two key developments: The 1999 law that led to the creation of land banks and general changes to the tax foreclosure system that keep rampant commercial speculators in check. He said 31 of the state's 83 counties have at least taken steps to create a land bank, though not all are using it as a way to divert properties from speculators.
Flint's land bank is a public authority formed to help stabilize area neighborhoods by acquiring, managing or redeveloping foreclosed properties. It's taken ownership of about 7,000 vacant or abandoned lots. Of those, it's sold 1,774 and cleared an additional 1,022 lots for resale or redevelopment.
Still, the task ahead is monumental: Flint has about 18,000 abandoned properties, including 6,000 abandoned homes. The city has one of the highest unemployment rates in a state whose jobless rate tops the nation's.
Outcomes touted
"The (land bank) model is far preferable to the alternative," Kildee said. "It's also proven to be not a solution unto itself but a system that delivers better outcomes."
Among its success stories: downtown's Berridge Hotel, recently a rundown flophouse that the Land Bank acquired and transformed into 20 condominium units and first-floor commercial space. The project was completed with the help of state tax credits and many other public and private sources.
The fully leased historic building will include among its tenants the new national land-use center. Kildee said he's still assembling his staff but envisions the Flint office will serve as the technical and business hub and Washington will serve as the policy center.
The center's primary funding comes from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Ford Foundation.
After making Flint land reuse his "mission for the last 10 years" and gaining attention across the state and nation, Kildee, 51, said the timing was right to take his work to a larger stage. He's resigning effective Jan. 1 from his duties as county treasurer and chairman and chief executive of the land bank to lead the new center.
He seriously mulled a 2010 run for governor, but said this is a "far more certain" option and "the best way for me to make the change the country needs."
"The Genesee County Land Bank now is somewhat institutionalized, really operating without a lot of daily guidance from me," said Kildee, nephew of U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint.
"The whole country — at least cities — are in crisis right now, partly because of chronic abandonment and the meltdown of the housing market."
Branching out
Branching out while keeping rooted is the right approach for the new venture, said David Hollister, economic development guru and president and CEO of the Lansing-based Prima Civitas Foundation, a nonprofit promoting economic development. It worked with Flint city officials this year on a budget balancing and deficit reduction plan.
The Land Bank "is a model that works," said Hollister, a former Democratic state lawmaker, Lansing mayor and director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth and Labor, where he worked with Kildee on developing public land bank authorities. |
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Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:30 am |
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Ryan Eashoo
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A model that works? What about all the houses that are in my neighborhood that the Land Bank owns that they are demolishing by neglect? That is a ordinance by the way that they are in violation of.
Is the land bank exempt from laws?
Does the land bank not have to mow the properties they own?
Does the land bank not have to board up the homes they own?
The City of Flint has lost millions of dollars in tax revenue to the hoarding by the land bank. I say lets tweek the system and when the land bank sells or redevelops a property, the city would get the taxes owed (or a part of them) back.
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Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:07 pm |
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Dave Starr
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Do we HAVE to give them to the land bank? Why not try this - offer a foreclosed house to a citizen Give them 1 year to bring it up to code & pass inspection. IF they live there 5 years, it's theirs. They may NOT sell the house or rent it out during that period. Giving them to the land bank guarantees the house will never be lived in again.
Ryan, part of the problem in your area - Carriage Town - is that it's designated as a historical district. Much Like Civic Park, the rehab requirements are so strict that it's economically unfeasible to do anything with them. If the rules would allow rehabbing a house to it's original appearance, but with modern materials, the chances of them being rehabbed would be better. |
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I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:24 pm |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 5:12 pm |
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Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
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Dave actually we have 21 rehabs in the works or currently being worked on. These are single family homes that some are in a terrible shape. The Land Bank needs to get a plan together to maintain their properties.
If I owned hundreds of homes and did a few renovation projects but let all the rest go What would you call me? Would I have the same rights as the Land Bank has currently?
quote:
Dave Starr schreef:
Do we HAVE to give them to the land bank? Why not try this - offer a foreclosed house to a citizen Give them 1 year to bring it up to code & pass inspection. IF they live there 5 years, it's theirs. They may NOT sell the house or rent it out during that period. Giving them to the land bank guarantees the house will never be lived in again.
Ryan, part of the problem in your area - Carriage Town - is that it's designated as a historical district. Much Like Civic Park, the rehab requirements are so strict that it's economically unfeasible to do anything with them. If the rules would allow rehabbing a house to it's original appearance, but with modern materials, the chances of them being rehabbed would be better.
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Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 5:39 pm |
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Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
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Don't get me wrong Dave I really like Dan Kildee and consider him a friend. However, I think the systems needs tweeking.
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Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 5:39 pm |
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back again
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| sounds like a great idea dave.....great idea!! |
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even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:11 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| Ryan- Yes the Land Bank is exempt from code enforcement. The State of Michigan actually responds better to complaints than the Land Bank. At one time the Land bank was telling Flint reisdents to cut the grass themselves . HUD is also good at maintaining their properties. |
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:37 pm |
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Gooch
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Like I said before. At our MNHA meeting last thursday, Raynetta Speed the Community Outreach Coordinator for land bank was there. She stated to us in the 5 or 10 minutes she stayed that they had just got all kinds of funding for their task force. I believe it's the weed and seed thing. But they spent all their time and money on the wrong end of town. I don't get what they cleaned up but they sure didn't do anything in my hood.
Also I posted this on The Journals site but I think this would go a long way here too:
"My saying that the court room brawls and the 40 kids getting kicked out of school are direct examples of each other because if adults can't act right in court how do we expect their children to act right in school. It's all back to following the rules.
I think we need to impliment a barter system as far as gaining more respect from a ground level up which would inturn solve the disrespect for law and disregard for general good citizenship. I get food stamps and unemployment so I'm speaking as someone who is "in" the system ATM.
Too many people get a handout without having to pay it back. It's too easy to get in the system without any cost to the reciever. So go to the barter system. If you get aid then give back your time. The saying "Idle Hands" rings true here. Once your in the system for so long you should be required to join a taskforce to:
A) clean up lots, repaint run down storefronts, sweep or shovle sidewalks, mow lawns for the elderly, or bag leaves
B) help with running programs for after school activities such as soccor, basketball, running, kickball, baseball, etc.
C) help in soup kitchens, help build or add on to homeless shelters, do paperwork, make small repairs, or help sort donations to give out
D) be required to get a basic education, learn new skills, put in ideas on panels to improve your areas, attend parenting classes, anger management programs, and substance abuse programs
E) drug testing for people on aid should be maditory no questions asked and if found your using your shouldn't be attacked but helped not cut off but put on probationary period.
This would all make it so the idea that "it's not my problem" and "I don't care" wouldn't be true any more. If you make people get involved then the ones it would help better themselve wouldn't fall through the cracks any more. And the ones who are helpless would not tax our system so much that thoes who do need help could get it instead of being denyed. And in the long run this would build a better Flint population."
And you could take your idea of giving forclosed homes to people in the system and give them ownership in something but they would have to work it off as well as start to pay it back with some cash once they got established. There are far too many renters in Flint killing this area. |
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Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:58 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Gooch- Hud made available 40 or more homes available to the city for $1.00 each. The vast majority of the homes could have been fixed for less than $5,000.00. Some were move in ready. The best ones were in the south side and east side. HUD agreed to tear down any that needed to be torn down.
After staff took photos of all the houses and did evaluations, the ball was dropped higher up in the administration. The homes went on the market and even some of the worst ones sold and were repaired.
These homes could have gone to a fledgling nonprofit to generate income and build another housing agency for Flint. Could have been a boon for low income and moderate income families. Most of the homes were small but some were huge and beautiful. Every side of the homes were photographed and detailed assessments were made as to the homes condition. |
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Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:39 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Because of the Land bank's rules on resale some homes are sitting there unsold because their prices are too high. The Land bank refuses to sell property in some north end neighborhoods according to residents in the community meetings.
These HUD homes are a bargain for those who can do much of the repair work themselves.
Greater Eastside rehabbed three homes on the East side and they sat on the market for over a year.. The Shelter of Flint was able to get grant money to buy them. |
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Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:43 am |
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Dave Starr
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quote:
untanglingwebs schreef:
Ryan- Yes the Land Bank is exempt from code enforcement. The State of Michigan actually responds better to complaints than the Land Bank. At one time the Land bank was telling Flint reisdents to cut the grass themselves . HUD is also good at maintaining their properties.
I was at a meeting where I asked a land bank rep about getting 3 of their properties on the next block mowed. The young lady got very irate & told me to buy a mower & do it myself. When i pointed out that the grass was over 3 feet tall, she accused me of being too lazy to do anything. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:01 am |
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terrybankert
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
Dave Starr schreef:
quote:
untanglingwebs schreef:
Ryan- Yes the Land Bank is exempt from code enforcement. The State of Michigan actually responds better to complaints than the Land Bank. At one time the Land bank was telling Flint reisdents to cut the grass themselves . HUD is also good at maintaining their properties.
I was at a meeting where I asked a land bank rep about getting 3 of their properties on the next block mowed. The young lady got very irate & told me to buy a mower & do it myself. When i pointed out that the grass was over 3 feet tall, she accused me of being too lazy to do anything.
That Land Bank Rep should be held accountable. Over 30% of our cities property is held by the land bank by the land banks choosing. We have a right to demand that the Land Bank to be held accountable. I support the program but I do not supprt Flint residents being treated harshly. |
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Join in the discussion here at Flint Talk , Face Book, Google Blogger " Good Morning Flint" , Twitter, Blogging For Michgian" and MLIVE.
If you want to be seen ,show up.If you want to be heard, stand up and speak.Do not wait to follow, just lead. |
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Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:51 am |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
Dave Starr schreef:
I was at a meeting where I asked a land bank rep about getting 3 of their properties on the next block mowed. The young lady got very irate & told me to buy a mower & do it myself. When i pointed out that the grass was over 3 feet tall, she accused me of being too lazy to do anything.
That lady needs a different job. Did you at least get her name? |
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Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:50 pm |
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Dave Starr
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| I may have it somewhere in my notes. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:28 am |
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