Illinois Suburban Areas to Buy Foreclosed Homes for Sale
August 10th, 2009 by 
Joseph Smith
A program has been launched designed to stabilize and improve the housing market in Illinois. The six western suburban areas of Oak Park, Bellwood, Forest Park, Broadview, Bellwood and Berwyn have partnered to apply for federal funding to fight foreclosures.
The initiative will use the federal funds to purchase foreclosed homes for sale and rehabilitate them. Local officials of participating areas believed that the partnership will be able to create more impact on initiatives to address the housing problems in the region devastated by the foreclosure crisis.
David Pope, president of Oak Park Village, said that the six suburban areas, combined together, would create the second biggest city in Illinois. He said that each area has its own distinction but they have more similarities than differences. He pointed out the need for areas to work collaboratively to resolve the foreclosure problem.
The West Suburban Housing Collaborative project plans to start applying for about $170 million federal grants allocated to the state under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The group of towns plans to use the federal funds to purchase abandoned and foreclosed houses, identify, choose and support developers who will do the redevelopment or rehabilitation work and coordinate land banking and demolition activities.
Furthermore, the collaborative plans to spend $75,000 for a senior project manager to coordinate and oversee the activities. The money that would be spent for the project manager comes from a federal grant of the Chicago Community Trust.
Liz Reyes of the nonprofit financial organization and real estate resource, IFF has been named senior project manager for the program to purchase and renovate foreclosure houses. IFF Housing director Jacques Sandberg said that the organization will create the fundamentals of the program and start applying for the federal funds.
Under the plan, each participating community will have two representatives who will be named in a working group which will meet regularly. Also assisting in the program is Lori Sommers, community development director at Maywood.
Data released by community officials showed that between 2007 and July 2009, there were 1,215 foreclosure homes in Berwyn, 822 in Maywood, 646 in Bellwood, 496 in Oak Park, 219 in Broadview and 220 in Forest Park.
Berwyn community development director Bob Dwan believes that the suburban area’s demographics are one of the factors contributing to the high foreclosure rate in the city. He said that the city has a high number of Hispanic residents who lost their jobs.
