Word: neighborhooding
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...which seemed to promise housing relief for hundreds of thousands of homeowners like Butler via mortgage-restructuring aid. But for reasons no one in Washington has adequately explained, that part of the bill never really materialized. What foreclosure-ravaged communities got instead were slivers of a $4 billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) fund to buy and refurbish already foreclosed homes. The city of Miami Gardens received $6.8 million, enough to acquire about 40 homes, less than 1% of the more than 4,000 units the city has in foreclosure, which amounts to the worst housing crash in hard-hit Florida...
...most lenders were hardly as amenable to mortgage relief last summer as they've become in recent months, when local governments like Miami Gardens began pressing the issue. "We're seeing a change, more willingness among the banks to cooperate," says Arden Shank, head of the Miami nonprofit Neighborhood Housing Services, which is working with Florida cities to counsel homeowners on foreclosure prevention. "Not too long ago, most banks wouldn't even talk to us." (Read "Fannie and Freddie Offer New Plan to Help Homeowners...
...from current market value. But one of the risks of that stipulation, say housing experts, is that if the houses are bought up at too deep a price cut, especially with housing prices so depressed right now, it could force surrounding property values further down and instead exacerbate neighborhood destabilization. That's another reason many cities would have preferred a focus on efforts to prevent foreclosure and keep existing families in those homes. Another problem is that the NSP is tacitly obliging cities to become property managers, something "local governments just aren't set up to do," says Shank, whose...
...want to stay within the UCC denomination, the best bet might be this historic black church, says Ron Stief, the former director of the UCC's Washington office and director of organizing strategy at Faith in Public Life. People's is located in Petworth - a mixed-race, less-affluent neighborhood in northwest D.C. - and Stief says it's very oriented to social justice: "They have a lot of international missions, sending members to Africa to do HIV work, for instance." Though there is another black UCC church in town, Stief warns that its pastor might be too "far left...
...It’s not accessible to a lot of people. It’s not getting used by people in the neighborhood,” he said. “It’s getting used by people who live around...