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Neighborhood Stabilization Program celebrates 100th revitalized "zombie home"

Megan Pauly
/
Delaware Public Media
The Hannah home receives an award for their purchase of the 100th home in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

 

In 2010, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program – or NSP – was created to help redevelop foreclosed homes. Six years later, New Castle County is celebrating the 100th home revitalized by the program.

Melissa Hannah’s new Claymont home – purchased through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program – was on display Monday morning.

 

Hannah says as her family grew along with the rental prices in New Castle County, she and her husband decided to start looking for a home to purchase.

 

“And we’d hoped to move last year and we just weren’t in a position to get everything together and get things done," she said. "So we had to renew the lease on our apartment which was heartbreaking to me. But we got through the year and then we found this which is amazing, it’s amazing.”

 

Carrie Casey is the Manager of New Castle County’s Division of Community Development and Housing.  She says most of the blighted properties in the NSP program were identified and purchased with the help of a team including a real estate attorney, real estate brokers, appraisers, environmental specialists and more.  

 

A large percentage of homes purchased have been in New Castle County along Route 9 corridor just outside of Wilmington.

 

“90% of the sales in those communities were sheriff sales," Casey said. "So the prices were the housing were plummeting, you had vacancy, you had crime…really you could see the impact.”

 

The program comes with a 15-year deed restriction so that the home remains a homeownership unit, to help incentivize homeownership.

 

Another program incentivizes individuals to buy vacant properties, helping pay 225 down payments so far.

 

The county received nearly $14 million in 2010 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) to help purchase – and help others purchase - vacant and abandoned homes.

 

Casey says the foreclosure crisis of 2009 was the impetus for the program.

 

“What we saw were just neighborhoods decimated by foreclosure and vacancy," Casey said. "We were lucky enough to receive the housing funds – one-time funding – to really address it community by community.”

 

These properties are often referred to as zombie houses since they’re stuck in limbo through the often long and drawn out foreclosure process.  And Casey says they remain an issue for the county.

But she adds when homes refurbished through the program are sold, the money is reinvested to fund the purchase of other blighted properties.

 

County Executive Tom Gordon applauded the program’s progress, but said it’s not even close to the beginning of the end in solving a universal affordable housing crisis, adding that there’s still a lot more to be done.

 

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