Dayton, which is home to about 60 percent of the vacant homes in Montgomery County, will receive almost 80 percent of the grant money. Harrison Twp., Trotwood and Jefferson Twp. will receive the rest.
“The need is defined by the number of vacancies,” said Mike Grauwelman, the land bank’s executive director. “You add up the vacancies for each of those four communities, and then you divide that number into the total, and that’s how you get that breakdown.”
The Ohio Housing Finance Agency announced last month that the local land bank will receive $5.05 million in funding through the Neighborhood Initiative Program. The agency awarded just less than $50 million to 11 land banks statewide, and the funds were leftover from the state’s Hardest Hit Fund.
The land bank filed its grant application in conjunction with Dayton, Trotwood, Jefferson Twp. and Harrison Twp.
In the application, the land bank identified more than 670 properties it wanted to acquire and demolish in those communities. But it will not be able to afford to level all of the properties identified because the land bank did not receive its full funding request of $15 million.
The land bank will distribute funds based on residential vacancy rates identified by the 2010 U.S. Census. Dayton will get $4.03 million; Harrison Twp., $485,167; Trotwood, $449,905; and Jefferson Twp., $89,054.
The land bank will acquire and demolish vacant residences in about 20 neighborhoods, officials said.
The areas were selected based on a variety of factors, including vacancy rates, foreclosure rates, tax delinquencies and changes in property value, officials said. The grant money seeks to help “tipping point” neighborhoods, or those that are stable and mostly occupied but are threatened by deteriorating homes.
The housing finance agency will reimburse the land bank up to $25,000 for each property acquired, demolished and maintained. But many acquisitions and demolitions will cost less.
“I expect we’ll see somewhere in the neighborhood of 275 to 300 units” acquired and eliminated, Grauwelman said. “The big variable in all of that is the demolition costs per unit.”
Vacant homes in Jefferson Twp. often run about $6,000 to demolish, he said. But single-family homes with attached garages in Dayton often cost nearly twice as much to level. Some homes may require asbestos abatement. There are also administrative costs.
The land bank must have half of the properties it wants to demolish in its possession by April 2015, or it risks having some of its funding reallocated to other groups, officials said.
The land bank will soon start accepting property as donations, but it will acquire many blighted properties through the tax foreclosure process.
“On the surface, donations sound easy, but you still have to get the owner to agree, there is paperwork, the deed transfer and such,” said Paul Robinson, the land bank’s treasurer. “That’s why the tax foreclosure process is going to be the primary route certainly for us, and I imagine it will be for the other counties too.”
The housing finance agency will provide a second round of funding later this year. Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said the land bank’s application created the blueprint for identifying tipping point neighborhoods.
“They said that part of the grant (application) was the standard for the state,” Whaley said.
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