Roll up Your Sleeves
It's Rehab Time!

Nonprofit organizations explore options to acquire, rehabilitate and help families become first time homeowners. Local leaders join resources to improve communities with lingering foreclosed properties.

The HUD San Juan Field Office is partnering with the Puerto Rico Community Foundation (PRCF), community-based non-profits, and industry experts to rehabilitate foreclosed properties and offer them at reasonable prices to low-income families. There is a robust inventory of foreclosed properties from local banks where the non-profits can negotiate prices, as well as FHA properties that are acquired through a bidding process. This helps local communities by reducing the negative effects that a foreclosed property entails, and also helps families that otherwise would not be able to purchase their own homes. This initiative is backed by funding provided by the PRCF for technical assistance to help the non-profits throughout the process planning, acquisition, and rehabilitation processes.

HUD and the stakeholders participating in the initiative recently held a conference called "Junte de Vivienda." Non-profit organizations received valuable information about HUD programs that could be used to purchase HUD homes, properties that have been conveyed back to the Department and that can be acquired at attractive discounts; they also learned about FHA products that would assist these organizations. The HUD team in San Juan offered technical assistance to these non-profits and guidance as they apply to the FHA programs. Other agencies supporting the initiative were USDA-Rural Development, the National Development Council, Enterprise Community Partners, and experienced Community Housing Development Organizations. At the end of the conference the non-profits had a "Fishing a Deal" session where they had one-on-one sessions with the federal and local agencies to discuss technical issues as well as more organization-specific concerns.

The initial goal was to rehab 14 properties; at the end of the event 29 were in the process of acquisition and rehab. Their future first time homeowners will be making affordable payments that allow for a better quality of life. It was a good day and a promising prospect for better communities. This is what HUD is all about!

###