[StBernard] First 400 properties in St. Bernard housing program on the market

[Westley Annis]

First 400 properties in St. Bernard housing program on the market

wwltv.com

Posted on August 4, 2012 at 10:34 PM

Updated yesterday at 10:41 PM

Monica Hernandez / Eyewitness News

ST. BERNARD, La. - As soon as Brian Liggio heard about a lot for sale in his
neighborhood, he called his father, who has yet to move back to St. Bernard
after Hurricane Katrina, to spread the word. The lot is one of roughly 400
properties that went on sale August 1 through the St. Bernard Housing
Opportunity Program.

 "I would love to see old neighbors come back, the older residents that know
what St. Bernard is all about to come back to it," said Liggio.

After months of heated discussion, the lots are the first of nearly 2,000 in
the program to go up for grabs. They're Road Home properties held by the
Louisiana Land Trust.

"I think its very important to move the properties into commerce. It does a
number of things. It gets the properties back in the tax rolls," said Mike
Taylor, executive director of the Louisiana Land Trust.

Selling the properties quickly is especially important because the Louisiana
Land Trust is running out of money to maintain them, and the parish says,
they don't have enough funds to do so indefinitely. The LLT recently signed
a new contract to maintain the properties, at a cost of more than $700 per
property each year. The one year contract can be expanded to up to three
years.

Responsibility for maintenance was scheduled to be transferred to St.
Bernard Parish government in June, but the LLT plans to continue maintaining
the lots this year unless the parish expresses a desire to do so.

Taylor said the LLT is no longer paying for maintenance out of its general
budget through the use of community block grants. Instead, it's using money
from program income, including the sale of Road Home properties. Taylor said
$3 million is already in the bank from the Lot Next Door program.

Taylor said the parish and the LLT decided to allow people to buy the
properties at fair market value, instead of put them up for auction, because
there were concerns an auction would bring down property values. A limited
number of properties were put on the market because authorities didn't want
to flood down the market, which could have also brought down property
values. 

 "We're working hard toward, this is our first sale of a large amount of
properties at one time," said Guy McInnis, St. Bernard Parish council.

The program differs from Lot Next Door because anyone can buy the properties
and build on them, within parish zoning laws. But some neighbors are
skeptical the lots will sell.

"I don't think the money's there to buy them now, and I don't see why you
would build more houses now in a parish that you still have 150 of them for
sale," said Victor Lucia, who recently moved back to St. Bernard.

Still, Liggio remains hopeful the program will be a positive for his
neighborhood.

"I hope it encourages the people that did move away," said Liggio. "I really
don't want it to be put out to you know here's these developers that come in
and come build this house and that house and sell it for a ridiculous
price."

The properties are on the market until August 21st. Anyone interested can
put in a non-refundable $350 dollar deposit to buy the house at appraised
market value. If more than one person is interested, they will bid on the
property at a live, open auction in October.

The LLT hopes to unload the properties by the end of the year.