Home Ownership Proposal Ready

City Would Funnel Millions Into Select Areas

By OSHRAT CARMIEL
Courant Staff Writer

April 9 2003

Mayor Eddie Perez, who campaigned on a pledge to boost Hartford's low home ownership rate, will announce a plan today to entice potential home buyers to invest in Hartford.

The plan, worked out over more than a year by Perez and a panel of real estate experts, will funnel millions of dollars to select city neighborhoods and blocks in hopes that improvements in appearance and services will create a "buzz" that translates into greater demand for housing.

"The end goal is to really set it up so when you drive down a street you say `Wow, that street's really changed," said Bob Kantor, director of the Connecticut Partnership Office of Fannie Mae, and a consultant to the mayor's homeownership plan.

The plan will create a network of high-priority blocks and sections of city neighborhoods - places that will see an infusion of dollars for home upkeep, marketing and neighborly activities like welcome wagons and block parties.

Those streets, dubbed "Rising Star Blocks" and "Pride Blocks" will also get priorities in city services, Perez said, putting them atop the list for things like pothole repairs, rodent control and housing code enforcement.

"We want to get some improvements made and neighborhoods energized and people saying, `This is a neighborhood I want to live in,'" Kantor said.

The newly refurbished blocks and neighborhoods would elevate housing values in the area, Kantor said, making would-be suburban homebuyers take a second look at buying in the city. Perez said that residents excited by their newly improved blocks would likely recommend Hartford living to their friends and colleagues.

The mayor and his advisory group will select "Rising Star Blocks," - clusters of three or four streets - in about five different city neighborhoods. Those blocks will receive about $1 million dollars to improve their appearance, create social activities and tackle any other improvements that will raise their market value. Each of those block clusters will be assigned a paid "neighborhood coordinator," who will hold meetings and help residents determine how best to use those improvement dollars.

The plan also calls for 18 to 24 "Pride Blocks" - individual streets - that will receive from $10,000 to $25,000 worth of investment money, Perez said.

The areas to receive the money have not yet been identified - a politically sensitive task - but Perez will explain the criteria for their selection today.

The blocks chosen will likely be stable areas that are in danger of "tipping" into instability because of such threats as crime or blight nearby, Perez said.

Places like Scarborough Street, the tony West End boulevard, would not likely be selected, Kantor offered as an example.

Hartford has the second lowest rate of homeownership in the nation, with only 25 percent of residents owning their homes. Perez campaigned on a pledge to boost the city's homeownership rate to 30 percent in five years, a goal that the task force has described as "ambitious."

Part of the problem in attracting buyers is Hartford's stock of housing. Of its 50,644 units of housing, only 14.9 percent of those are single family detached homes - the kind most desired by buyers.

Kantor said that the immediate plan is not heavily focused on homebuilding, but that the task force has evaluated most of the city's blocks , and will consider how much room there is for new construction, when choosing neighborhoods for investment.

"Investment breeds investment," Kantor said.

Copyright 2003, Hartford Courant