Millions Of Extra Dollars For Columbus And Franklin County To Tackle Foreclosures

Millions of extra dollars are being readied for Columbus and Franklin County to tackle foreclosures. The officials are mulling over $3million to help people stay in the house that are their homes and avoid foreclosures. Measures are being taken to pursue predatory lenders who had cheated borrowers and to keep safe and free from the problems arising out of vacant foreclosed units within the counties. About 5% of the targeted amount has been collected from taxpayers who where delinquent.

The legislature has recently given the county to proceed with taking steps to mitigate the foreclosure crisis. Edward Leonard, the County Treasurer of Franklin County and Ron O’Brien the Prosecutor will draw up the plan of action in September about what amount should be spent and how.

Ohio ranked sixth in the national foreclosure race in the previous month, June 2008. In 2007 it had ranked seventh. According to federal data Ohio stood 21st among the takers of sub-prime mortgages from 2004 to 2006. At that time about 23% of all the mortgages in the state were sub-prime. In the city foreclosure race Columbus stood 25th during 2007 according to RealtyTrac. Cleveland, Dayton, Akron and Toledo had greater number of foreclosures than Columbus. Cincinnati ranked among the toppers in 50 offending cities.

The city budget felt the ripples of foreclosure this year. Extra costs had to be incurred for maintaining lawns, clearing pools and boarding up empty reo houses. Columbus is scheduled to spend $4.5 million from its own resources for a programme that will run for 2 years. It has been named Home Again. It will renovate or bulldoze vacant houses as the situation demands and help low-income owners to carry on repairs and other works so as to prevent them from facing foreclosure. Plans for redevelopment of new parcels of land near what was once the Schottenstein Store on the south has already been prepared.

In the current vote a housing bill is on the cards in Washington. This bill also includes help to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A presidential veto threat is hanging over it. It includes the sanctioning of funds to help cities fix up and renovate empty properties. In those areas where foreclosures have been intense the lawmakers want to target $4 billion. These were the places where there had been the maximum number of sub-prime mortgages that were largely held responsible for the foreclosure crisis.