NLV, county join forces to help fill foreclosed houses

As the foreclosure crisis leaves many areas checkered with empty homes, two local governments have crafted plans to spend $30 million in federal money to get people into vacant houses.

Clark County and the city of North Las Vegas formed a loose partnership to use federal funds from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

The program is designed to fill empty houses in the most stricken foreclosure areas to avoid blight. More than 12,000 houses have fallen into foreclosure in the Las Vegas valley, county officials estimate.

The Clark County Commission will review the plans today before they are passed to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The deadline for submitting plans is Dec. 1.

"I think it meets the goals that we set," said Michael Pawlak, a management analyst for the county's finance department.

A total of $72 million was earmarked for Nevada. Of that, $24.3 million will be funneled to the county and $6.8 million to North Las Vegas.

The state also will give the county a hefty piece of the federal money it received, Pawlak said. That includes dispensing $7.9 million directly to the county's efforts, plus giving the county and North Las Vegas each $2 million to set up pilot programs in certain hard-hit areas.

Local leaders have complained that federal rules won't allow the funds to aid homeowners on the verge of foreclosure.

Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly said he was glad to see federal dollars flowing into a region slammed by foreclosures, but added that this program was just a start.

"A lot of people are suffering," Weekly said. "It's time to make something happen for the real people who have lost their jobs, lost their houses."

The county's portion of the money would be divided into seven components:

• $6.8 million for home buyers' assistance. To qualify, buyers cannot earn more than 120 percent of the area's median income, which is $53,700 for one person and $76,700 for a four-person household.

Buyers must pay at least 15 percent below the home's fair market value.

• $9.26 million to aid nonprofit groups in buying, renovating and selling the vacant homes.

• $8 million to aid the Clark County Housing Authority and other nonprofit entities to buy, fix up and rent out abandoned homes.

• $3 million to rebuild the 252-unit Buena Vista Springs apartment complex near Carey Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

• $420,000 to build new dwellings on demolished sites.

• $400,000 to counsel prospective buyers on owning a home.

• $75,000 to remove deteriorated dwellings.

HUD will take up to 45 days to review the plans, Pawlak said. Given that timeline, the county may see the first federal dollars in early 2009.

Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.