Community Development Authority looks to buy foreclosed properties

Marlborough - It is full speed ahead for the Community Development Authority (CDA) as it wraps up existing projects and begins to evaluate and proceed with new programs. Under new CDA Director Kevin Flynn, the organization is busy with new department hires, the addition of green products to building renovations and an influx of stimulus funds.

    With interviews taking place for a new financial manager and program manager, Flynn explained, the department runs under a budget separate from the city budget. 

    “This agency is unique in the state,” Flynn said. “It’s an independent authority including both the Housing [Authority] and CDA in one budget … a hybrid. We have been working to get the capacity restored back to the agency … This will position us to apply for a variety of grants including block grants through the Community Development Block Grants [CBDG].”

    Block grants have been around since 1974 and are given out annually with applications due in the spring. They can be used for a variety of city projects including housing repair, assisting first-time homebuyers, repairing sidewalks, improving downtown façades or construction projects. In addition, a percentage of the grant covers administrative costs which offsets the CDA department operational costs.

    “The city has not applied for one [block grant] since 2005,” he said.  

    The department is currently evaluating where to use a recent windfall of $400,000 that the city received from the first wave of funds released from the federal government Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Marlborough will be one of 39 communities selected to receive a portion of the $43 million awarded by the state. 

    “The funds are to restore foreclosed properties,” Flynn said. “The state received requests for three times the amount available and Marlborough was 16th on the list of the 39 cities hard hit … We got about 55 percent of what we requested.”

    With the CDA originally looking to purchase two dozen local properties to rehab and sell to first-time buyers, Flynn anticipates that the decrease in funding will bring that number down. The department is currently in the process of identifying which properties, he explained, and the organization is not allowed to make a profit on the properties.

    “The whole idea with this is to put these properties back into the market … We are delighted to have this opportunity,” he said. “We have been tracking foreclosures and we are currently looking at properties.”

    Hopeful of a second round of Neighborhood Stabilization Funds, Flynn explained that it could provide an opportunity for the city to increase its supply of housing. With the city in need of more affordable and public housing, the CDA is looking at increasing its portfolio of houses or attach long-term affordability clauses to properties.

    Conscious of the current trend toward more environmentally-friendly housing products, Flynn explained that the CDA is exploring initiatives such as putting solar panels on downtown buildings.

   “We have received funds for ultra-high-efficiency lights which will be put in at the senior housing complex on Main Street and we are looking to identify other opportunities,” he said.