BLIGHT ELIMINATION FUNDING

June 19, 2015
For Immediate Release

Contact: Erica M. Craft
Interim Director
Neighborhood and Transit Services Division
(864) 231 -2242 or 231-2223 ecraft@cityofandersonsc.com

City of Anderson Receives $424,504 for Blight Elimination

The City of Anderson has received $424,504 in funding from the South Carolina Housing Finance and Development Authority through its Neighborhood Initiative Program (NIP) to acquire and demolish boarded-up, vacant, condemned and/or blighted residential structures and improve the remaining parcels.

The funding will allow the City to significantly increase its efforts to eliminate blight through demolition and greening of blighted properties. Mayor Terence Roberts said, “This funding is important to the City of Anderson.  Removing blight is one of the first steps toward stabilizing neighborhoods, initiating reinvestment, and setting the stage for private sector involvement.  Ultimately, these dollars and the efforts of our partners will help bring positive change to neighborhoods.”

Over a year period, the City and its non-profit partners, Anderson Community Development Corporation and Nehemiah Community Revitalization Corporation, will acquire and demolish substandard properties, then green and maintain the vacant lots until redevelopment or other uses of the land are approved.

The goal of NIP is to prevent foreclosures by stabilizing property values through the removal and greening of blighted properties in strategically targeted areas.  NIP assists communities by stemming the decline of home values and acting as a catalyst to initiate redevelopment and revitalization in areas suffering from blight and decline.  NIP is a joint venture of the South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority and the South Carolina Housing Corporation, a not-for–profit corporation. Funding for NIP is made possible by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund.

City staff has identified more than 80 properties that could be eligible for this program. The properties must be vacant, residential, and be blighted and/or home to criminal activity.

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