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Pasco To Use Federal Funding To Buy, Fix Foreclosed Homes

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 25, 2008

DADE CITY - Pasco County will put $9 million into buying and rehabilitating homes in areas hit hard by the banking and foreclosure crises. An additional $6.5 million will go toward down payment assistance.

County commissioners approved a revised plan today for spending $19.5 million in federal housing money earmarked for Pasco based on the amount of foreclosures and subprime loans in the county. Pasco got the 17th largest allocation in the country.

The spending plan, which has yet to be approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, represents a shift from county commissioners' demand in October that 90 percent of the money go into down-payment help. HUD refused to support that approach, George Romagnoli, head of the county's Community Development Division, told commissioners.

The new plan allots 46 percent of the money to fixing foreclosed, abandoned and otherwise distressed homes. Romagnoli has said the money will target "the worst of the worst" houses, leaving the real estate market to handle the rest.

The money will be loaned to nonprofit agencies to buy and rehabilitate targeted homes that then will be sold – potentially to people using down-payment help from the same program.

The revised proposal didn't sit well with the county's real estate agents, who pressed commissioners to allocate more for down-payment help and to appoint a committee to oversee how the money is spent. Commissioners declined to consider either option.

"They ignored everything that we requested today," Greg Armstrong, president of the West Pasco Board of Realtors, said after the vote.

Armstrong questioned the government's ability to manage the housing money as efficiently as the free-market could. He derided the county's existing rehabilitation program as too slow to curb the increase of foreclosures. He said his group will continue to press commissioners to shift more money toward down-payment help as the program evolves.

Regions of the county targeted for help include much of the U.S. 19 corridor south of State Road 52, the 33545 ZIP code in Wesley Chapel and most of eastern Pasco County. Money won't be available for Port Richey, Dade City and Zephyrhills because they don't participate in the county's Community Development Block Grant program.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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