05-03-17 Community Relations - Laserfiche WebLink

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on it,we have the South Bend Heritage Foundation, 466 Works, and other individuals who want to get on board with the idea. Councilmembers Jo M. Broden and Karen White arrived at the meeting at 6:07 p.m. Ms. Mannix continued, One (1) of the factors that need to be considered when we are trying to figure out what we want to do with neighborhoods are a lot of vacant lots. There are a lot of neighborhoods with more vacant lots than there are houses. There are also a lot of small old houses that need repair. Houses that are buyable, but have much work that needs to be done, are right now undesirable to purchase. Many people want two (2) car garages and two (2) bathrooms. There is not an easy path to buying a simple house. The newspaper recently said we have a hot real estate market with a shortage of houses from $100,000 to $200,000. There are a lot of inexpensive houses and a lot of expensive houses, and not a whole lot in the middle. A lot of the Westside Neighborhoods have good and solid homeowners. Every neighborhood has solid homeowners that keep it together. We have a lot of community groups that are holding lots. South Bend Heritage has thirty-five (35) vacant lots. The City funds are very limited. They are doing the best they can but revenue streams keep getting cut. So we are waiting for City plans. We got through one-thousand(1000) houses in one-thousand(1000) days, what is the next step? This is the next step suggestion. Downtown development is going very well. Smart Streets are wrapping up. Where do we go next?My suggestion is we have a balanced neighborhood program that serves all kinds of residents. It should have mixed-income,racial balance, different family size and types. We need houses for families and maybe some apartments for middle income people. A lot of neighborhoods need owner-occupied rehabilitation. We are trying to get the maximum use of state funds, local funds and private money to try and balance the neighborhoods. We don't want to have one (1) good neighborhood and neglect all the rest. The first idea we had was to build one-hundred(100) houses for homeowners in five-hundred (500) days. It is a little aggressive. The first thing we need to do is a market study, and that will cost less than $10,000 and will help us look at the trends to see what we are up against. We will identify clusters of lots so we avoid going into a neighborhood and building one (1)nice house around the other older houses. The map in the presentation(which can be accessed in the City Clerk's Office) is just a draft map of what we are talking about. We would like to have five (5) lots in an existing area. We want houses that are good, sellable, and that will last. We don't want anything in a floodplain or in a wetland. We don't want the houses to be adjacent to railroad tracks. We don't want environmental issues. This is just a draft. We would ask the contractors to get some house plans to put on the website. The idea would be anyone could go to the website and say `I want this house,this lot,this contractor.' Ms. Mannix continued, I encourage minority employees and contractors and want to get them to provide service. We are looking for homeowners that qualify for a$100,000 loan. They can select their own and we will not have any income limits. One (1)problem is people may want to buy the house that is a little bit too much money. We could tier the houses so thirty-three (33) houses are within the $34,000 to $48,000 tier,the next thirty-three (33) are in the $48,000- $68,000 tier and the last thirty-three houses are $68,000 and up. Financing is a big stickler. We are going to ask people to get a first mortgage, a regular bank mortgage for the appraised value 2