Indianapolis Receives $8m To Fight Blight

INDIANAPOLIS – Indianapolis will receive $8 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to bolster local efforts to clean up and redevelop abandoned properties, Congressman André Carson has announced.

The grant is part of a third round of funding through HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which is aimed at providing state and local governments with emergency funds to acquire, redevelop or demolish foreclosed properties.

Indianapolis was one of several communities to receive a portion of the $1 billion in NSP funds allocated under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Congressman Carson and his colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus were instrumental in ensuring the NSP program was funded in the final Wall Street Reform bill. At one point during the debate, Carson and other CBC members staged a walk out during a Financial Services committee vote to push the issue front and center on the agenda.

“I joined my CBC colleagues in pushing this issue because of the tremendous need in our neighborhoods,” Carson said. “We have so many communities making great strides, but they still face significant hurdles in tackling foreclosed properties, which lower the quality of life and become magnets for crime and blight. This funding will be another much needed shot in the arm for Indianapolis and other communities struggling with high rates of foreclosure.

“These NSP funds are a great example of what we need in this tough economy—a program that puts people back to work by making lasting investments in our neighborhoods.”

The latest $8 million grant is in addition to the $29 million Carson secured in 2008 as part of the first round of NSP funding. That initial infusion is currently being put to work demolishing abandoned houses and redeveloping properties in five targeted neighborhoods across Indianapolis as part of a program managed by the city.

For this third round of NSP funds, state and local governments can use their neighborhood stabilization grants to acquire land and property; to demolish or rehabilitate abandoned properties; and/or to offer down payment and closing cost assistance to low- to moderate-income homebuyers (household incomes not exceed 120 percent of area median income). In addition, these grantees can create “land banks” to assemble, temporarily manage and dispose of vacant land for the purpose of stabilizing neighborhoods and encouraging re-use or redevelopment of urban property. HUD will issue an NSP3 guidance notice in the next few weeks to assist grantees in designing their programs and applying for funds.