[1]Indiana Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann announced on Friday [2] that two of the state's municipalities were recipients of a combined total of approximately $2.9 million in awards from the Hardest Hit Fund Blight Elimination Program (BEP).
In what was the second out of six rounds of funding for the BEP, the city of Fort Wayne and the town of Arcadia were the successful applicants for the funds to help eliminate blighted, vacant, and abandoned homes in their respective communities in an effort to decrease foreclosures in the areas.
"The Blight Elimination Program is allowing communities throughout Indiana to address long-standing problems with blighted and abandoned homes," Ellspermann said. "This second round of funding provides an even larger impact, providing communities with an opportunity to obtain and remove structures that would otherwise continue to negatively impact neighborhoods."
Fort Wayne received $2.8 million of the money recently awarded in order to acquire, demolish, and facilitate an end use for 122 blighted, abandoned residential properties. City officials in Fort Wayne believe the demolition of the blighted properties will facilitate investment and growth as well as prevent avoidable foreclosures. Arcadia received $18,000 for the acquisition, demolition, and end use of one abandoned, blighted property located on Main Street in Arcadia.
"Cities across Indiana have been struggling with the damaging effects caused by vacant and blighted properties and will soon see the benefits of these federal funds," said Sarah Bloom Raskin, Treasury Deputy Secretary. "Removing blighted properties is important in the fight to reduce foreclosures and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the State of Indiana to help stabilize hardest hit communities."
Ellspermann announced the BEP for Indiana in February 2014. In the first round of funding in May, successful applicants to receive a combined total of approximately $15 million in funding were East Chicago, Gary, Hammond, Indianapolis, and Lawrence. The U.S. Department of Treasury approved the use of $75 million for the BEP to help eliminate blight, drawn from the $221.7 million allocated to Indiana for the Hardest Hit Fund.