Granting New Life to Distressed Properties

Image Credit: Fall River/New Bedford Housing Partnership

Last year's much-publicized $26 billion foreclosure settlement with leading lenders is translating into new opportunities for the glut of distressed and vacant bank-owned properties in communities across the country. In Massachusetts, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced her office's Distressed Properties Identification and Revitalization grant (DPIR), which will allocate $1 million to aid cities and towns across the Commonwealth in their efforts to restore vacant properties to full use. The project, which is the result of collaboration between the AG's office and Massachusetts' Registers of Deeds, encourage partnerships among communities that receive DPIR grants and is especially targeted at "Gateway Cities" that bore the brunt of the foreclosure crisis and consequently have the state's highest rates of distressed and vacant properties. Some of the Gateway Cities, such as Fall River and New Bedford, are being encouraged to submit joint applications. According to the AG's office, the deadline to apply for a grant is June 13. This blog will feature more stories about similar grant programs implemented in other states utilizing the funds from the multi-state foreclosure practices settlement.