NEWS

New Castle County seeks remedies for 'zombie' homes

ReVaMP loan assistance program will provide $5,000, downpayment help to buy vacant residential property

Xerxes Wilson
The News Journal
A vacant home in the Garfield Park neighborhood is shown on Thursday. New Castle County has introduced a program to help owners purchase vacant homes.
  • New Castle County has developed a home ownership program for empty properties.
  • The $5,000 loan is for settlement and downpayment assistance.
  • The loan will be forgiven if the purchaser lives in the home for five years.

A government-backed loan program has been developed in hopes of filling vacant properties scattered across New Castle County.

ReVaMP — short for "Remediating, Vacancies. Making Progress" — will provide a $5,000 loan for settlement and downpayment assistance on the purchase of a home vacant for more than 90 days. The loan will be forgiven if the purchaser lives in the home for five years.

"I know it is time and money, but these homes bring down value and cause problems in neighborhoods," said New Castle County Councilman David Tackett, who sponsored legislation earlier this year to create a county registry for vacant homes.

The loan can be applied to residential purchases in areas the state Housing Authority has deemed "highly distressed," with high vacancy rates, low rates of homeownership and low property values.

Purchasers must have income that does not exceed 120 percent of median income for the New Castle County area, which is $77,160 for a two-person household.

The county has set aside $100,000 for the initiative.

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County Community Services manager Sophia Hanson said the program is a tool that can be used with other home rehabilitation programs funded by the state and federal government.

The County Council passed legislation to create a vacant home registry in February 2015. The legislation requires property owners to register the property after 100 days of it being vacant. Fees will be assessed to the owner, starting at $100, for properties vacant between one and two years, up to $5,000 for more than 10 years empty.

Hanson said 1,300 have been registered with the county. Some create an eyesore or haven for crime.

A vacant Garfield Park home is shown on Thursday. New Castle County is using grant money to rehabilitate the property and has introduced a program to help owners purchase vacant homes.

"It has just been a bear to try to get our arms around," Tacket said.

County government interacts with vacant properties primarily through code enforcement. Neighbors report code violations like unkempt grass, broken windows or unsecured entrances. In some cases, the county hires someone to address the violation and attempts to seek out the owner to cover the cost. Often that owner can't be found as the property is tied up in a foreclosure or other legal processes, leaving the county with the bill for that upkeep.

Tackett said the problem of identifying longstanding vacant homes is made more difficult by so-called "zombie properties" that see banks or financiers evict residents, but not take full possession of the homes or not immediately send them to sheriff's sale.

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"We need to get these homes rounded up, (the county Law Department) needs to evaluate them and we need to push them to sheriff sale," Tackett said.

Hanson said her department is working with County Council to bolster the tools government has to register such homes.

"Opening a line of communication with the banks will be the next step," Hanson said.

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.