During the height of the foreclosure crisis a proposal was drafted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, MuniReg president Michael Halpern was a proponent of this concept even prior to the release of the proposal. In his unique position of working with local communities and loan servicers he saw this as a true “win-win solution”. In a new article for American City & County magazine, Halpern provides his perspective on the 2010 proposal and why it should be re-considered.

To view the article, please click here.

In our first video blog, Michael Halpern, president and founder of MuniReg LLC provides some personal background, discusses the founding of MuniReg while also discussing current legislation in one particular state that clearly shows a major disconnect that should be addressed.

Feedback is always welcome! Please direct feedback to [email protected]

State Sen. Louis Blessing (R-Colerain Township) has introduced two pieces of legislation to address “corporate slumlords”.

OH SB 354 “would bar landlords or property owners with unresolved code violations or unpaid fines from bidding on a foreclosed home in Ohio.”
To view the text of the bill, please click here.
To view a related media report, please click here.

Modeled after CA SB 1079 , OH SB 344 “aims to stifle investors’ ability to buy foreclosed homes at public auctions in Ohio, give individual tenants, homebuyers and housing nonprofits a leg up in the bidding process.”

To view the text of the bill, please click here.
To view a related media report, please click here.

 

Definitely a more frequent occurrence during the foreclosure crisis, however examples like this still exists. Homeowner becomes delinquent on the mortgage, bank initiates foreclosure, homeowners vacates/abandons the property and assumes bank takes possession. However banks doesn’t conclude the foreclosure (with or without releasing the lien).

Now a recent report from Chicago discusses how “Zombie foreclosures stick former homeowners with major fines from city after bank doesn’t claim deed”

For more information, please click here.

In an earlier post, we featured an article from Western Wayne News (WWN) discussing “VPROs”. That article is part of a series on addressing blight. In the next article, WWN provides a high-level view of how local government jurisdictions currently addresses blighted properties. The Q& A featured;

The following questions were addressed.

  1. Do you have any blighted property ordinances (more than 1?) What sorts of things do they reference, i.e., grass exceeding a specified number of inches? Overgrown, dead or dropped trees that have been left unattended? Abandoned cars?
  2. Could you count or estimate a percent of vacant properties in your community, that are blighted?
  3. Do you provide aid to property owners unable to keep up with exterior maintenance, before it gets too large to resolve? If yes, please provide contact information and special requirements for getting that assistance, i.e., senior citizen, health compromised, lacking skills or equipment to do the work.
  4. What enforcement efforts, if any, have you utilized in the past 6 months, and how effective have efforts been?
  5. Who is in charge of enforcement – name, phone and email – and is enforcement only initiated by complaints or do you have someone looking for violations and providing citations?
  6. When acting on a citizen complaint, is the complainant identified when you contact the property owner?
  7. How much time do you allow for vacant properties with fire damage?
  8. What are your biggest challenges in dealing with blighted property?
  9. Other information you would like citizens to know.

To view the responses, please click here.

 

 

A recent article featured the “Revitalize or Die” blog of Jeff Siegler including comments about the value of a vacant property registry.

In addition to discussing the components of a registry, the article quotes Siegler “Siegler also emphasizes the importance of the community coming together to let local lawmakers know they support this initiative and want change to happen.”

To view the article, please click here. 

To view the referenced posting on VPROs, please click here

To access the blog, please click here.

One South Carolina County is utilizing a local resource to address vacant and abandoned properties – Wofford College ethnography and data science students.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

The study scheduled to conclude in August, has included interviews and data collection in three communities where at least 150 abandoned houses have been documented. The study’s latest activities included a three-week camp for youth living in the area to gain perspective on what changes might be needed.
As part of the Wofford study, students will identify who owns the properties and how the properties are distributed in neighborhoods.

This utilization of local resources is a key component of addressing blight. However, it is important to remember that these surveys are “just” a snapshot in time. Properties get re-occupied, ownership changes hands etc.
These initiatives should be partnered with other critical tools such as a vacant property registry.

To view the article, please click here.