In July Congress passed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. Now, some of those federal funds are headed for Georgia. The act allocates 4-billion dollars in emergency funding for neighborhoods across the country. Georgia’s share of the money is 153-million dollars. Most of the money will be spent in the Atlanta area, but Macon got 4-million dollars. Macon Mayor Robert Reichert says the money is badly needed.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the effects of a foreclosure in your neighborhood. Imagine if you will you put your house on the market to try and sell it, and two doors down from your house is an abandoned house and because of vandalism they’ve had to board up the windows.”
Some of the money will be spent to provide down payments to qualified home buyers, while another portion will be spent to fix up blighted neighborhoods. Augusta, Columbus and Savannah also received a portion of the funds. Officials have 18 months to come up with a plan to spend the money.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the effects of a foreclosure in your neighborhood. Imagine if you will you put your house on the market to try and sell it, and two doors down from your house is an abandoned house and because of vandalism they’ve had to board up the windows.”
Some of the money will be spent to provide down payments to qualified home buyers, while another portion will be spent to fix up blighted neighborhoods. Augusta, Columbus and Savannah also received a portion of the funds. Officials have 18 months to come up with a plan to spend the money.
