Hammond sets target for HUD funds

HAMMOND | Within the next couple of days, the city of Hammond will move a step closer to using federal funds to buy foreclosed and vacant homes and offer them to prospective homebuyers at a discount.

Department of Planning and Development official Dennis Radowski said Wednesday the effort is a part of using $3.86 million it received in a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to improve neighborhoods around the city.

Through its Neighborhood Stabilization Program, HUD awarded funds to 309 grantees - including Hammond, Gary, Lake County and East Chicago - to help stabilize communities hardest hit by foreclosures and delinquencies, according to HUD's Web site. East Chicago received its funds through an award from the state of Indiana.

The city plans to buy single-family homes in Hammond, rehabilitate them and sell them to people who plan on occupying the home, said Radowski, manager of two federal housing programs for Hammond's planning department.

Radowski said he hopes that by early February, a list of properties will be available for buyers. As early as a month after that, he said the first family could move into a home as a result of the program. In an optimistic estimate, he hopes that about 60 homes can be sold through the program. However, the clock is ticking because the funds have to be committed for use by next fall and the money has the be spent in the next four years.

One of the problems the city has is that investors are swooping in and buying properties at a discount and holding them for purposes of making a profit and not making improvements to the land, Radowski said. He said through the program, the city will use a contractor and make environmental assessments of a home and determine what type of improvements need to be made before it is put back on the market.

"Not every investor who's buying a property in Hammond is doing that," Radowski said.

The city, in partnership with Freddie Mac and Centier Bank, held two sessions Wednesday at Lost Marsh Golf Course's banquet center to pitch the program to prospective buyers and those working in the mortgage business. About 25 people attended the evening session and Radowski said about 150 people attended the morning session.

For more information and details on the program, contact the Hammond Department of Planning and Development at (219) 853-6371.