Oakland County to rehab, preserve foreclosed homes with $26 million

Monday, November 24, 2008 | Source: metromode

Details are starting to trickle in about how Oakland County plans to put its $26 million in foreclosure funds to work.

The County recently received that money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's new Neighborhood Stabilization Program to deal with bad mortgages. It then released a plan on how to put those funds to use, which can be found here.

The largest slices are heading to Pontiac ($3.5 million), Southfield ($3.2 million) and Waterford (a little more than $2 million). Oakland County will now spread around nearly $10 million to Hazel Park, Oak Park, Madison Heights, Royal Oak Township, Ferndale, Keego Harbor, Rose Township, Ortonville, Holly Township, Lathrup and Lake Orion.

The biggest slices of that $17.4 million pie will go to Oak Park and Hazel Park ($1.6 million each) while the smallest ($400,000) will go toward Lake Orion and Lathrup.

The rest will be focused on getting people into foreclosed homes throughout the rest of Oakland County. That includes help with securing down payments, lining up financing and helping the new occupants rehab the homes.

"The county is reserving some of it to help anyone who wants to purchase a foreclosed home in any of our communities," says Karry Rieth, manager of the community and home improvement division of Oakland County.

That idea is to help local communities acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties in danger of becoming (or remaining) blight. Some of the money can be used to raze structures redevelop vacant properties.

Oakland County Community & Home Improvement division will release guidelines and application procedures in the near future. For information, click here or call (248) 858-0493.

Source: Karry Rieth, manager of the community and home improvement division of Oakland County
Writer: Jon Zemke