UNA loan program to increase center city home properties

Within a year of its inception, the Urban Neighborhoods Alliance is effecting change in Springfield urban areas.

UNA branched off of the Urban Districts Alliance to help develop an urban residential area capable of supporting the recent influx of businesses in the downtown area. UNA is currently focused on revitalizing homes within the boundaries of Kansas Expressway, National Avenue, Grand Street and Kearney Street.

Existing and upcoming UNA programs focus on increasing homeownership and fostering mixed-income communities within the target area, as well as providing loans for necessary home repairs for existing homeowners.

UNA Director Jack Pugh works with community leaders as well as Springfield city government officials to develop programs to assist areas within UNA's target zone. Neighborhoods within this zone include Woodland Heights, Sherman Avenue, Grant Beach, Midtown and West Central.

UNA recently began offering a loan through UMB Bank to encourage local contractors to take on remodeling projects in urban neighborhoods.

"The program is to encourage remodeling and rehab in the urban neighborhoods," Pugh said, "The contractor can either find his own projects or we can find properties for him. We now have our first remodeler, Ron Walker, who is buying his first two houses in the Sherman Avenue redevelopment area."

The contractor loan is based on an appraisal of what the home will be worth when it is finished, said Pugh. "Interest rates are set at prime; contractors finance the purchase and remodel with the UMB loan."

The upcoming homeowner below-market remodeling loan offers financial assistance to existing homeowners in the urban neighborhoods to do necessary repair work on their homes.

The loan is not for cosmetic repairs and will be facilitated through UMB Bank. The city of Springfield contributed to the program by bringing interest on these loans down to 3 percent.

"With that particular loan, repairs we will be looking at are electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, roofs, structural repairs, weatherization, new windows, siding and insulation," Pugh said.

To qualify for this loan, applicants must live within the designated neighborhoods and meet the standards set for income.

"Anyone earning 120 percent of the median income will be eligible for this. What that would mean is that a family of four earning approximately $60,000 a year would be eligible to participate. It (loan standards) was specifically set this way to help with our goal of making these neighborhoods mixed income neighborhoods," Pugh said.

UNA also is encouraging local employers to establish an Employee Assisted Homeownership Program. The program would provide training and education from Fannie Mae, encouraging urban employees to live in neighborhoods near their workplaces.

Pugh cites the city of Springfield as an employer that has shown initiative in establishing this program. The plan would give city employees up to $5,000 to apply toward a down payment or to do rehab work on a house in the designated area.

"Their leadership was essential to show other businesses that this is important. They have before City Council a program which is tremendous," Pugh said.

"This is a program that, because of its complexity, will take time, but I think people will get around to it once they see one or two of them up and running," Pugh said.

UNA also is encouraging other businesses to participate in the program.

Drury University has a version of the program planned and has been working closely with UNA to promote other programs.

"We are working with Drury University business students to set our marketing activities in the right direction. They will have their groundwork finished by the middle of March," Pugh said.

Community leaders report that although not all of UNA's programs are in place, they have seen improvements in their neighborhoods as a result of the organization's efforts.

"I think what they are doing just makes our neighborhood more attractive to homeowners, and I think it's a great way for neighborhoods to help solve some of the problems we are faced with every day," said Bob Horton, president of Midtown Neighborhood Association.

Horton said that UNA's emphasis on increasing homeownership is important.

"When you have owner-occupied housing, people tend to take a little more pride in their homes," Horton said.

Mike Mitchell, president of Woodland Heights Neighborhood Association, also sees UNA as a solution to neighborhood problems.

"From my perspective, UNA is all about finding ways to make things possible. People come to me and say I want to move into your neighborhood. How do I do it?' Well, we have loans to get people in with no money down, thanks to UNA," Mitchell said.

Phyllis Netzer of West Central neighborhood Alliance said UNA has helped her neighborhood.

"Perceptions of safety in our neighborhoods are beginning to change, and we have seen a solid indication of property values going up," Netzer said.

"UNA can combine the needs of several neighborhoods with loans, or landlord training these kinds of things help everybody the city and the neighborhoods. Everyone is going to win," Netzer added.

Through their own efforts and through work with UNA, neighborhood leaders are revitalizing urban neighborhoods.

"I like to tell people I can go out on my porch any day during spring or summer and hear hammering, and that is a wonderful sound," Mitchell said.