DONOVAN AND REID ANNOUNCE $1.3 MILLION TO HELP LAS VEGAS AND CLARK COUNTY STABILIZE NEIGHBORHOODS GRAPPLING WITH FORECLOSURES
HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary to hold Background-only conference call with reporters TODAY, Details Below

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Nevada Senator Harry Reid today announced up to $1.3 million in emergency technical assistance to help reverse the effects of foreclosure and abandonment in certain neighborhoods in the City of Las Vegas and Clark County. The unprecedented aid announced today is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is part of the Obama Administration's plan to help communities hardest hit by the downturn in the housing market.

"The foreclosure crisis is especially brutal in places like the City of Las Vegas and Clark County, requiring that we redouble our efforts to stabilize neighborhoods there," said Donovan. "This first-of-its-kind technical assistance will help jump start stabilization programs in Las Vegas and Clark County and makes good on President Obama's pledge to leave no stone unturned in helping those parts of our country experiencing the greatest recovery challenges."

"I thank Secretary Donovan for responding to my call to provide more help for Nevada homeowners," Reid said. "This funding will go a long way toward helping the City of Las Vegas and Clark County speed up the process of putting Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds to work for southern Nevadans."

In addition to the funds announced today, HUD has also dispatched teams of technical experts, as well as additional staff, to address the foreclosure crisis and help retool neighborhood stabilization programs in the City of Las Vegas and Clark County, areas that have struggled with difficult market conditions as well as a shortage of trained staff of their own.

HUD's Deputy Assitant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, Yolanda Chavez, will be available to speak on background to the media TODAY, Thursday, February 25, 2010, at 11 a.m. PST, about today's announcement. The conference call dial-in information is below:

Telephone-number: 877-313-1274
Conference ID: 59333850

Background

Nearly one year ago, HUD allocated $72 million (including approximately $15 million to Las Vegas and $30 million to Clark Co.) in grants through the Department's Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). These grants are designed to help communities throughout Nevada to acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties that might otherwise become sources of abandonment and blight. Last month, HUD awarded an additional $21 million through a second round of NSP funding to address foreclosure/abandonment in Reno, Sparks and Washoe County, Nevada.

The funding announced today will help Las Vegas and Clark County to use and spend the NSP funding they already have more effectively. HUD is dispatching teams of experts, as well as additional HUD staff, to help improve the effectiveness of Las Vegas' and Clark County's neighborhood stabilization programs which are struggling due to a lack of technical expertise. These experienced HUD technical assistance teams will remain in Las Vegas and Clark County through at least September 30, 2012.

HUD's teams will assist both of these communities to modify or, in some cases completely retool the systems necessary to manage programs centered around property acquisition, management, rehabilitation, and resale. In particular, HUD will help Las Vegas to increase productivity in its Housing Assistance Program (HAP); assist in developing construction expertise; and enhance the City's property management capacity. HUD will assist Clark County to develop a more intensive and sophisticated marketing effort to attract buyers of previously foreclosed properties; acquire services or train key personnel in the rapid, high volume acquisition of scattered site single family homes; develop systems and skills to manage a high-volume rehab program; and create comprehensive asset and property management systems specific to scattered site single family properties.

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