Elgin seeks partner to find buyers for foreclosed homes

The foreclosure crisis that has gripped the nation has Elgin leaders working to minimize its impact in the city.

Council members Wednesday night will vote on formalizing an agreement with Habitat for Humanity of the Northern Fox Valley that would allow the group to identify low-income people to purchase four specific foreclosed homes.

Last year, Elgin received a $2.1 million grant under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to purchase, fix up and sell 12 foreclosed houses.

Four of them are reserved for low-income families.

They are at 108-110 Channing St., 511 Washburn St., 355 Moseley St. and 485 East Chicago St.

Under federal guidelines, 25 percent of the grant funds, roughly $540,000, must be reserved to fix up homes for low-income households, those families that make less than half of the average income for the area. Elgin is working in conjunction with Habitat to identify qualifying buyers for those four houses.

"We are using Habitat for Humanity because we believe they are well equipped to screen low-income housing applicants," city spokesman Sue Olafson said.

Workers would convert the apartment building on Channing Street back into a single-family house and rehabilitate the other three buildings, Olafson said.

The city spent a total of $281,700 out of the grant to acquire the four properties.

If the committee of the whole approves the measure, the city council would consider it at a future meeting.

If the council gives it the green light, construction would begin in mid-July, Olafson said.

Elgin reached the height of the foreclosure wave in 2009, with 1,500 homes - 4 percent of the city's housing stock - going through the process, Mayor Ed Schock said.

"The good news is that a lot of foreclosed homes have been purchased by people who might not be able to afford a home," Schock said. "Foreclosed homes have been sold to investors and people looking for a home they can afford."