By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
The City of Providence is using court receivership to spark privately-backed rehabilitation of hundreds of blighted properties, in a shift away from selling abandoned housing at tax sales, a long-standing process that critics say can take a year or more before rehabilitation work can even begin.
Standing Tuesday in front of a three-story home on Magnolia Street undergoing rehabilitation under the program he calls “EveryHome”, Mayor Jorge Elorza said he hopes to bring up to 100 properties a year back onto the city’s tax rolls, of an inventory of 500 to 600 abandoned homes.
“We’ve pulled them from the tax sale process and shifted ownership to the PRA, to the Providence Redevelopment Agency, so we control the use and make sure many of these properties are rehabbed, in a way that makes sense for the community, and they’re done much swifter,” said Elorza.
Rhode Island Housing is seeding the program with a $3 million revolving loan fund, the city is setting aside $1 million in Community Development Block Grant funds and will loan up to $100,000 in a bridge loan pool to rehabilitate housing most at risk of abandonment, said Elorza.
The new approach is being used in other cities, said Frank Shea, the outgoing head of ONE Neighborhood Builders, which has developed 330 affordable apartments and over 115 single-family homes in Providence.
“It’s the best chance of getting the properties redeveloped,” said Shea. “It’s all about strategy and being sensitive to the real estate market in that neighborhood.”
“A strategic and expanded use of the receivership program will reduce the properties, create jobs along the way… put these properties back on the tax rolls for the city, and create other good, real estate – related jobs,” said Barbara Fields, Executive Director of Rhode Island Housing.
“By turning this around, we can create (sic) a vicious cycle into a virtuous cycle,” said Elorza. “We rehab this property, we eliminate the blight, we put people to work, we put families in there and we lift up an entire neighborhood. So that if people see that this home is being rehabbed, well then the next door neighbor is much more likely to invest in their home. This is about lifting up an entire neighborhood.”
