Economic Recovery Act’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program will not only help neighborhoods, but will rebuild lives

Nashville gets $4M to rehab neighborhoods
Nashville Business Journal

The Tennessee Housing Development Agency is administering $49.3 million of the state’s $72.5 million from the Housing and Economic Recovery Act’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which Congress passed in July.
Direct community allocations from THDA include $11.5 million for Memphis, $4 million for Nashville/Davidson County, $2.7 million for Shelby County, $2.73 million for Knoxville and $2.1 million for Chattanooga.
Nationally, the program made $3.92 billion available for community and state administrators to develop programs to purchase, rehabilitate and sell abandoned and foreclosed homes to rebuild neighborhoods. The legislation also requires 25 percent of the state’s allocation be used for households at or below 50 percent of area median income.
Ted Fellman, executive director of the Tennessee housing agency, says the funds provide an opportunity to rebuild neighborhoods hit by the subprime mortgage and foreclosure crises. THDA will allocate the state’s funding to the areas with the greatest need, with HUD providing data revealing which Census tracts have the highest percentages of homes financed with subprime mortgages and high foreclosure rates.