The good news is Rome and Floyd County do not have as many home foreclosures as other areas of the state.
The bad news is the lower number means the area doesn’t meet the minimum threshold for federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding.
Rome Assistant County Manager Sammy Rich said the two governments had hoped to apply for $3 million to $5 million from the new program aimed at helping communities stave off the blight that can stem from foreclosed and vacant homes.
Instead, they will likely have to apply jointly with neighboring counties in order to be eligible under the rules set by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
“This program continues to evolve and change,” Rich said. “For now, it looks like we’ll be partnering with the Coosa Valley Regional Development Center.”
The Coosa Valley RDC is expected to discuss participation in a joint application during its monthly board meeting set for 10 a.m. Thursday.
Rome Community Development Director Ron Sitterding said Bartow County is eligible for up to $1.2 million on its own and Paulding County could see as much as $2 million from the $75 million or so the state has to distribute outside metropolitan Atlanta.
But the other Northwest Georgia counties don’t qualify, he said, because a program launched in 2007 by the Appala-chian Housing Authority has been successful in reducing the number of foreclosed homes.
“They prevented 52 of the 60 foreclosures that came to them from our county,” Sitterding said.
For an archived story about the program, click here.
Sitterding said the money can be used in several ways:
Creating financing mechanisms to help owners hold on to their property or assist new buyers;
Buying and rehabilitating foreclosed or vacant prop-erties, then leasing or selling them;
Demolishing deteriorated structures;
Funding a Land Bank Authority to acquire and resell foreclosed or vacant properties; and
Funding new construction, including public facilities, on the abandoned sites.
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