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of the house. One (1)problem is we can't get the houses to appraise because there are no <br /> neighbors. We would ask the City to put in$6 million total, $3 million a year. That's a lot of <br /> money but there are many benefits and many ways to administer this.Now the question becomes <br /> how we will find these lots. We will have a committee sit down and look for and approve the <br /> lots. Then we will have a website. We will also need a marketing campaign for South Bend. The <br /> bank will administer the construction draws and we will also need to have home-owner training. <br /> Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, This project would address the affordable housing <br /> issue and would also close that gap due to lack of resources. It also addresses the issue of <br /> minority contracting. We talk a lot about getting minority businesses involved and this does <br /> exactly that. <br /> Committeemember Karen White mentioned, The impact of one-thousand (1000) homes in one- <br /> thousand(1000) days has had a certain impact on certain neighborhoods, and now this addresses <br /> the infill of that impact. <br /> Committee Chair Williams-Preston then opened the floor to members of the public to speak to <br /> the concept of one-hundred (100) homes in five-hundred (5 00) days. <br /> Samuel Brown, 222 E. Navarre Street, stated, There are younger kids coming back into the city <br /> that are pushing older people out. I don't understand how we can get money for certain things <br /> but not get it for other things like this. What about the people that can't afford a home? What are <br /> they going to do? The City has limited funds to help them so I don't know where we are going <br /> with this. Downtown is dead but the Council has put light back into the downtown. How many <br /> minorities do we have downtown, one (1)? Two (2)? This housing thing is a bad situation. I <br /> don't have the answer but apparently you don't either. There is no way a minority contractor can <br /> compete with the others. <br /> Ms. Mannix stated, It is very difficult to buy lots because people are holding them. One (1)thing <br /> this project can do is get one-hundred (100) lots that people can buy and actually use. It doesn't <br /> help anything if people are just holding on to these vacant lots and it doesn't help the City grow. <br /> I hope we can get the lots and make them easy for people to buy. I think we do need affordable <br /> housing. That isn't the issue we are talking about but that is an issue we need to work on, as well <br /> as rehabilitation. <br /> Drew Duncan, 2023 Miami Street, asked, What type of research has there been to see the effect <br /> these homes will have on the surrounding property values? The average income in South Bend is <br /> $30,000 and I don't know how anyone making that much will be approved for a$120,000 loan. <br /> Creative financing is very volatile, especially for land-contracts. We have to understand all the <br /> side-effects of this possibility. There needs to be a lot more research before this is done. <br /> Verna Anderson, 1125 Cleveland Avenue, stated, I live over by the Muessel School. The area <br /> over there is really bad due to houses not being fixed or being just abandoned by the landlords. <br /> But what about people in the neighborhood that have been there for twenty (20) or(30) years <br /> that still want to live there?They know people that may need a house or single parents that need <br /> a house. Their credit may not be good enough. Would this program help people with poor credit <br /> to get good enough credit to buy these houses? <br /> 3 <br />