By Mark Bashore, WKAR
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-892877.mp3
LANSING, MI –
Habitat for Humanity's first-ever home rehabilitation project in Lansing is done.
AUDIO: Habitat---which ordinarily builds new homes for low-income people---is purchasing the foreclosed property on Lansing's northwest side from the Ingham County Land Bank. Volunteers have spent spent about four months making it livable. Denise Paquette is Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity Lansing. She says a glut of inexpensive, foreclosed homes is the force behind its "Foreclosure Remediation Program."
"Before now, it was much harder to do rehabs because of the cost of acquisition," she explains. "You didn't find houses that you could afford to purchase and then to rehab to standards that we require. And clearly we work with people who are 50-percent below median income, so we have to keep the price down."
The city of Lansing funded roughly half of the $70,000 rehabilitation with federal HUD funds. The Capital Region Community Foundation also contributed to the project. Paquette says Habitat for Humanity has at least two more similar projects in the works.