The City of Philadelphia will receive nearly $44 million in stimulus funds, with the city of Camden raking in another $26 million for job creation and housing programs, the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday.
The grants were part of the $2 billion in Recovery Act funding detailed by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan that went directly to cities, states and non-profit housing development organizations.
"Philadelphia is famous as a city of neighborhoods and today’s announcement is a huge boost for communities across this city,” Mayor Nutter said in a press release. “We have fought for every dollar possible from the Recovery Act to help create jobs and invest in Philadelphia. These funds will enable us to build new affordable homes and to put more Philadelphians back to work.”
Philadelphia will spend the money to buy and refurbish foreclosed homes, provide second loans to owners in danger of losing their homes, demolish blighted structures and redevelop foreclosed multi-family properties, according to the city.
The competitive grants were spread across the country, with the city of Los Angeles taking in $100 million, the most of any city. Chicago received $98 million, Phoenix $60 million
Nutter credited Philadelphia's Congressional delegation -- Sen. Robert Casey, Sen. Arlen Specter, U.S. Rep. Robert Brady, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz -- for supporting the city's application.
The city of Camden will receive $26.07 million through two grants.
The Housing Authority, the nonprofit The Heart of Camden and two for-profit developers have partnered to buy and restore 100 abandoned or foreclosed, demolish 23 blighted buildings and redevelop 70 vacant properties. The work will be targeted to neighborhoods where there are ongoing redevelopment efforts.
The Camden Redevelopment Agency has joined with four community development groups to rehabilitate 146 homes and demolish another 66. The group will receive $11.93 million.
The rehabbed homes will be sold as affordable housing. Both grants will benefit homebuyers whose income does not exceed 120 percent of the area median income, with a quarter of the money targeted to projects that benefit people making no more than half of the area median income.
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How does Phoenix deserve $16 million more than Philly? Their infrastructure is newer and they don't face nearly as many urban issues as Phila does. Can someone enlighten me?— mantua633- >>How does Phoenix deserve $16 million more than Philly? Their infrastructure is newer and they don't face nearly as many urban issues as Phila does. Can someone enlighten me?<< Democrat party needs their undecided votes for the mid-term election.— Hakim
How does Camden a city of 150k get 26 mil and Philly a city of 1.5 mil get 44??? So much for the old hacks in DC bring home the bacon!— Earl J
Comment removed.- Follow the money, who will rehab these houses. How do you get on the list.
- kelprod1 (or is it Kaiser?): so you're concerned that we borrow large sums "...from foriegn nations, hand it out as political bribe cash to special interest groups, then shamelessly hand the bill to quite a few future generations of kids... A national disgrace." ... are you aware that Obama is somewhat perpetuating your old Friend-in-Chief George W. Bush's tactics as W. left office, the Bush Domestic Economy Initiative of 2008. in his FINAL YEAR as president, the wild reckless Bush $pending culminated with these government programs: 1) Stimulus ($600 taxpayer rebates, Feb 2008) $ 168 Billion; 2) Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac bailout $400 Billion; 3) A.I.G. bailout $150 Billion; Financial Bailout (TARP 1, Oct 2008) $700 Billion. (note: some BIGs were rescued, others died or merged to survive ... Lehman, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Marty's BIG Carpets, etc.) Let me repeat: Bush in JUST HIS LAST YEAR IN OFFICE TALLIED $1.418 Trillion in spending. let that sink in, bro ,,,,, bottomline: the Bush economic mantra was: Socialize the losses and Privatize the gains. so who is in bed with Wall St and the Banks? yo Kelprod/Kaiser, if you had acknowledged the later as it was happening (ie, Bush got us into a financial hell-hole and then kicked-the-economic clusterf#@k-gas-can down the road) then you are on firm footing to criticize the Obama domestic economic path. ... as you can see, Obama is alot closer to your Friend-in-Chief Bush in actual practice that it truly astounds me that You & Yours are so irate about Obama. makes one wonder WHY The Right Wing uproar on the new kid on the block who is basically the previous kid but happens to wear the Other Team's uniform, has a funny sounding al-qaeda name, and don't get me started on the ears ,,,,— jimy_max
- jimy_max: here's a heads up for you. Obama ran on 'change', 'transparency', 'hope'. Just didn't state that all applied to his friends and progressives! Another heads up, George Bush is no longer in office - Obama campaigned to be different from Bush, the only thing he has done is to surpass him in his greed!! That's what you can take to the bank. People are irate over Obama because he promised to be for the people - nada!!!— cheshilguy
Let the games begin! We are assured of months, if not years, of entertainment watching the Nutter administration try to develop and implement programs to spend this new found cash! I only ask that the coming waste, fraud, and corruption be shared for my viewing pleasure!— CyaNutter
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