Agenda - Council - 12/14/2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Housing Foreclosures Home foreclosures can have an impact on a neighborhood and community with deferred maintenance and vacant homes. In 2006, Anoka County recorded 844 properties in foreclosure. Ramsey has a fairly small percentage of the County's foreclosed property 7% or 60 homes. Along with the rest of the metropolitan area, over the past four years we have seen significant increase in the number of foreclosed properties within the City. While some areas are more impacted than others, no area has proven immune to the problem. Year # of Foreclosures 2006 60 2007 141 2008 271 2009 357 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 I ❑ Foreclosures In November 2008 the City Council adopted an ordinance allowing the disconnection of water service in vacant and foreclosed properties. The City also receives lists of properties from Connexus and CenterPoint Energy on service disconnections. Staff then take the list of foreclosed properties and other utility disconnections and develop a list of properties that are on City water. In 2009 there were 121 properties that were on City water that were also on the foreclosure list. These properties are tagged and a letter is also sent to the owner of record. If no response is received within five days the property is scheduled for water service disconnection by the Utility division. The intent of this program is to prevent property damage from frozen pipes, vacancy or vandalism. In 2008 Ramsey partnered with the Minnesota Home Ownership Center and the communities of Anoka, Coon Rapids, Blaine and Andover to sponsor a Borrowers and Foreclosure Prevention Workshop at the Anoka Technical College. That workshop was advertised in the Ramsey Resident, all of the official community newspapers, Anoka Shopper, Cable T.V., and local reader boards. We also included a flyer in one of the Utility Billing cycles. The format of the workshop was to have reputable lenders and counselors to assist members of the community. There are numerous options that the City can consider to address management of vacant properties and rehabilitation and neighborhood recovery. Examples include: 1. Provide access to affordable financing to homeowners in distress. 2. Provide incentive to purchase vacant homes. (the County is already doing this through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program) 3. Implement ordinances to offset impacts of foreclosure and vacant buildings (such as the water utility disconnection program) 4. Code Enforcement to handle blight of vacant properties, especially long grass and debris 5. Homebuyer loan programs 6. Homeowner educational outreach 7. Stepped up marketing campaigns