MSHDA, Kent County Land Bank Authority to launch Fresh Start Demolition Program

Largest residential cleanup effort in Grand Rapids history kicks off Thursday

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Oct. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA):

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110419/MM85741LOGO)

WHO: 
Grand Rapids City Councilwoman Rosalynn Bliss, Kent County Treasurer and Land Bank Board Chair Ken Parrish, MSHDA Executive Director Scott Woosley, Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk, Grand Rapids Fire Chief Laura Knapp and other local, federal and state officials.

WHAT:
Kick-off of Grand Rapids' largest residential demolition campaign in city history. The Gov. Snyder Administration, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), the U.S. Department of Treasury, the City of Grand Rapids and the Kent County Land Bank Authority are partnering with public safety officials and neighborhood leaders on an unprecedented $2.5 million initiative to help demolish approximately 100 vacant and foreclosed Grand Rapids residential properties. Councilwoman Bliss, Treasurer Parrish and other officials will launch the cleanup effort with the demolition of an abandoned home in a southeast side neighborhood hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. The goal of the Fresh Start campaign is to turn chronically problem properties into development opportunities.

Grand Rapids' funding comes from $100 million in federal spending MSHDA was approved to allocate in 2013 by the U.S. Treasury as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program's Hardest Hit Fund, designed to help homeowners in states hit hardest by the housing crisis. The first-in-the-nation campaign will focus efforts on decreasing foreclosures and stabilizing neighborhoods through the demolition and greening of some of the more than 78,000 vacant and abandoned single-family and multi-family properties in Detroit and four of Michigan's largest urban communities, including Grand Rapids, Flint, Pontiac and Saginaw.

WHEN:     
11:00 AM Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013

WHERE:  
738 Franklin SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507 (near the intersection of Franklin and Eastern streets)

SOURCE Michigan State Housing Development Authority