WARREN - Hundreds of local homes have been reduced to dozens of sheets of paper inside a plastic folder, and soon they will be little more than piles of rubble.
By year's end, the city and Trumbull County will begin demolishing homes using $5.5 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds courtesy of the federal government. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program was passed by Congress through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 as a one-time funding provision to states and local governments for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes.
Warren is receiving a $2.1 million allocation funneled through the Ohio Department of Development. Trumbull County is receiving $3.4 million.
The process began last summer when the Trumbull County Planning Commission began collecting data on income, high-cost loans, foreclosure rates, poverty rates and blighted and abandoned properties, according to Planning Commission grants coordinator Julie Green.
Of the $3.4 million allocated to the county, about $1.7 million will be used to demolish about 100 homes and provide downpayment rehabilitation for eight low-, moderate- and middle-income households. Houses eligible for demolition and rehabilitation have been identified in Warren, Niles, Girard, Howland, Liberty, Brookfield, Hubbard, Newton Township and Warren Township.
Green said the federal guidelines for using NSP funds are very stringent and are based on income, foreclosure rates, high-cost loans and other factors. Because of the guidelines, some areas of the county, such as Cortland, Southington and Vienna, do not qualify for funding.
In addition, the program allows 10 percent of the allocation to be used for administrative costs associated with inspections, lien searches, research and paperwork.
Girard will receive a direct allocation of $350,000, with $235,000 being used to demolish two dozen homes and $35,000 going toward administrative costs. The remaining $80,000 will be used for one downpayment rehabilitation and one rental rehabilitation, Green said.
Niles will receive a direct allocation of $550,000, with $335,000 being used to demolish about 33 homes and $55,000 going toward administrative costs. The remaining $160,000 will be used for two downpayment rehabilitations and two rental rehabilitations, according to Green.
Trumbull County will use approximately $1.4 million for residential rehabilitation, including a transitional housing facility for at-risk youths, three Habitat for Humanity homes and four subsidized rentals through the Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority.
However, Green said the process is more complicated than identifying a house for demolition and spending the money. She said the county has to follow Ohio Revised Code Section 505.86, which establishes the demolition process for unincorporated areas - a process that could take several months.
Green said each property also must be submitted to the Ohio Historic Preservation Office for a historical review, and an environmental review must be done for each property.
It's not much easier in the city. Since the fall, Warren Community Development grants coordinator Cathy Angelo has been preparing a folder for each property slated for demolition.
The health department must first condemn a home. A title search is done to determine the owner and any lien holders who must be notified of the decision. Condemnation hearings then are held before the Board of Health, where all those with an interest in the property can appeal the decision.
Deputy health commissioner Robert Pinti said the NSP criteria for demolishing a home is less stringent than his department's criteria.
If a homeowner contests the health department's decision to condemn a structure, the owner can pull a rehabilitation permit at the building department. They then will have a certain timeframe to complete the work or the home will be placed back on the demolition list.
"The trend I am seeing is people coming forward to save some of these houses. Some of them may have been sitting vacant for years, but now the owners know we have this money and we are serious about tearing these houses down, so they're fixing them up. It still gets rid of the blight, which is the aim of the program," Pinti said.
Before demolition can take place, the city must complete a Tier I environmental assessment of each property. The assessment is a 16-point checklist provided by the EPA and Housing of Urban Development.
Janet Musolf, Community Development accountant, said Warren qualifies for an exemption on 11 of the 16 categories, meaning five categories need to be reviewed for each property. Among them are a historical review by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office, or OHPO, and a floodplain management review.
The OHPO determines whether a house has historical value. If it doesn't, demolition can proceed. Musolf said the agency has 30 days to respond to an inquiry and a separate inquiry must be done for each property.
"Thankfully, none of the homes we have submitted so far have had to be removed from the demolition list because of historic preservation issues," Musolf said.
The environmental assessment also involves determining if there are wetlands that must be mitigated, and if there are thermal or explosive hazards in the area, such as underground gas storage tanks, that must be removed.
Warren Community Development director Michael Keys said he would like to have a working list of between 300 and 400 homes by the end of September. The city plans to demolish between 250 and 300 homes, but he said extras are needed in case some homes get removed from the list.
He said the city is considering bidding the demolitions in groups of 60 so the first bundle can be bid out in August and work can begin in early fall. Keys said contracts for all demolition and rehabilitation work must be signed by June 2010. All redevelopment and rehabilitation work must be completed by 2013.
"This has been a long process that has involved many people putting in a lot of hours," Keys said.
