01-08-2025 Workshop Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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HED-9 VACANT, BOARDED, AND FORECLOSED PROPERTIES AND PROPERTIES AT RISK •Preserving and increasing resources and incentives to sustain existing public housing throughout the Metro Area; •Maintaining the federal tax credit program to help spur construction and secure additional private investment, including making the four percent Low Income Housing Tax Credit a fixed rate as was done with the nine percent credit in 2015; •Creating and implementing a more streamlined procedural method for local units of government to participate in and access federal funding and services dealing with grants, loans, and tax incentive programs for economic and community development efforts; •Additional resources to assist communities to meet obligations to reduce barriers to and promote fair housing and equal opportunity; •Maintaining and increasing resources to Section 8 funding and to support incentives for rental property owners to participate in the program; •Federal funding programs for renters with limited income or fixed income; •Rental increase caps when the rent increase exceeds a 5-year running average; and •Federal funding to provide short-term assistance for HRAs to facilitate the sale of tax- exempt bonds. Abandoned residential and commercial properties can harm communities when vacant buildings result in reduced property values and increased crime. The additional public safety and code enforcement costs of managing vacant properties are a financial strain on cities. Metro Cities supports solutions to vacant and boarded properties that recognize that prevention is more cost effective than a cure, the causes of this problem are many and varied, requiring a variety of solutions, and cities must not be expected to bear the bulk of the burden of mitigation, because it is not simply a “city” problem. Further, Metro Cities supports: •Registration of vacant and boarded properties; •Allowing cities to acquire vacant and boarded properties before deterioration and vandalism result in unsalvageable structures, including providing financial tools such as increasing eminent domain flexibility; 48