Posted 2:23 am Sunday, February 28, 2010
Rundown Home Replacement Program Reinfused With Funding In Gladewater
By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer
GLADEWATER -- Ten dilapidated houses will be replaced with newly constructed homes for needy Gladewater residents by the end of a second round of funding from federal and local sources.
Staff Writer
GLADEWATER -- Ten dilapidated houses will be replaced with newly constructed homes for needy Gladewater residents by the end of a second round of funding from federal and local sources.
Appraisals came in between $60,000 and $65,000 for each of five houses built in scattered locations throughout the city in the first round of the home program, said Jay Stokes, city manager.
Following completion in January of the fifth house, the city is about to commence construction of another five houses for eligible disadvantaged residents.
Encouraged by the consulting Tyler firm of Gary R. Traylor & Associates, the city of Gladewater applied in 2007 to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for federal housing and urban development funding. The aid is channeled to states by the federal government for the home program.
Gladewater officials successfully sought funding to pay for tearing down houses in poor shape and building new houses back.
In 2007, the city received about $250,000 of federal funds from the state and was required to match the federal grant with $55,000 from the city's general fund, primarily with sales and property tax revenues.
The combined funding paid for construction of the first five houses in the home program on sites where houses in poor condition had been torn down.
"Last month, we were able to hand new keys to all five of the property owners and they are now living in their new home," Stokes said, calling it heart-warming. "They have lived in an old house several years; the old house was torn down and a new house put back in the exact same location."
The new houses, the city manager said, are all frame structures containing two bedrooms, one bathroom, basic appliances and "just under 900 square feet." Many of the houses torn down to make room for the new houses had holes in the floors, structural deficiencies, leaking roofs and old appliances that were not energy efficient.
In response to another application in 2008, the city received about the same amount of funding from the state for construction of another five houses, scheduled to start soon, and again matched the federal grant with local tax revenue.
"That will make 10 new homes built here through this program in a short period," Stokes said.
The city also participated in the housing program in the mid-1990s, when another five houses were built.
"It says a lot about the nature of our community that the city council was willing to get involved in a program that reaches out to some of the neediest among us," Stokes said.
"First, it's helping folks out that need help," the city manager said of the program. "Secondly, in a lot of cases, if those houses weren't fixed up through some type of program, potentially they might end up as a liability to the city down the road. As people move on or pass away, you end up with eyesores, and the city has to spend money to put a lien on property that you may or may not ever collect."
But the new houses put more taxable value on the city's tax roles because they are valued more than the run-down houses torn down, Stokes pointed out.
"We feel at the city level that the program took 10 houses that were in very poor shape and potentially were going to be problematic for the whole community down the road and we were able to get 10 new houses that will be in good shape and an asset to the tax role for 30-40 years to come," he said.
The first five applicants who met all the criteria were deemed eligible for a new house and construction began about a year ago, the city manager said. To qualify, applicants had to meet state regulations requiring them to live within the geographical city limits of Gladewater, meet certain income criteria and own a house in poor condition with no debt, tax or other lien on the property that was to be torn down.
"We tell them upfront they will be without a home three or four months, perhaps longer (while the new house is constructed). As far as I know, every one of them had someone nearby they could live with," Stokes said.
