In July 2008, Congress passed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act in an effort to stop the rapidly growing numbers of foreclosures and abandoned properties following the burst of the housing bubble. As part of this act, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program was created to “arrest the decline in quality of life and property value in neighborhoods caused by the presence of foreclosed and abandoned homes,” according to the Coosa Valley Regional Development Center.

Since that time, 10 Northwest Georgia counties, including Haralson County, were allotted funds from the program to rehabilitate abandoned or foreclosed properties owned by banks. Haralson County was slated to receive $433,460 of the $6.5 million spent on property investments in the Coosa Valley Regional Development Center area in September of 2008. According to Tallapoosa City Planner Patrick Clarey, the city of Tallapoosa has seen one purchase of property by the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission (NWGRC).

“They would tell us that they didn’t want to buy some houses, but that money was supposed to be spent quickly. We applied in September 2008 and were supposed to have been allocated the money by mid-June 2009,” Clarey said.

Michael Miller, NSP Coordinator for the NWGRC, said the purchased property in Tallapoosa, at 4490 Stone Mountain Dr., was the first of three or four purchases in the city that the NWGRC intends to make and that the first project is nearly complete.

“We work with the counties,” Miller said, “in Haralson County we work with Patrick Clarey and [Haralson County Commission Chairman] Allen Poole to decide which areas they would like us to work in. They make recommendations for those areas that they’ve seen have been affected by foreclosures and abandonment. We will take the properties they recommend or we’ll recommend some to them.”

The NSP requires that the property be built after 1978 to avoid expenditures of stripping lead-based paint and that the property can be rehabilitated for less than $30,000. Miller said that the NWGRC also takes marketability and whether or not the buyer is an individual or a family into consideration with local properties.

“Under the first round of the program, we have until Sept. 5 to obligate funds to purchase properties,” Miller said. “We will have contracts to purchase those properties by then.”

Miller said the next step after obligating the funds is to cultivate buyers for the homes.

“We have homebuyer orientation seminars performed by several housing counseling agencies. Interested families or those looking for one-on-one counseling can contact me at 706-295-6485 or at mmiller@nwgrc.org,” he said.

After a rehabilitated property has been sold, the funds from that property will fund other property purchases until March 5, 2013. To prevent the early resale of a home that the NWGRC rehabilitated, Clarey said the commission will offer a downpayment forgivable loan. If the buyer remains in the home for at least five years, the loan is forgiven.

“Part of the success is being able to stabilize those communities,” Miller said. “We want to take concentration of vacant houses in neighborhood, rehabilitate them and get families in them. That keeps them from being blighted and losing property value. That’s the spirit of the program. Success looks like our ability to go out and stabilize through these methods.”