City Awarded $250,000 Neighborhood Stabilization Grant

City officials are hopeful that a recent $250,000 grant from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization program can help fix up a Lakewood neighborhood hit hard by the recession.

The money — made available through the Cuyahoga County Department of Development — will go toward buying and fixing up properties near the city's Birdtown neighborhood.

This isn't something new.

The city — not typically in the real estate business — has been , fixing them up and selling them to improve the quality of neighborhoods.

Dru Siley, the city's director of planning and development, said recently that the city has a "long history of being (a) part of rehabs."

“We can now get out there, we can be much more assertive in acquiring these properties and being a part of that market in a helpful and strategic way," he said.

This round of funding is specifically focused on the neighborhood from Ridgewood to Clarence avenues and Madison to Detroit avenues, according to a press release. 

"We are thrilled to be receiving this significant amount of NSP money," Lakewood Mayor Michael Summers said in the statement. “Lakewood’s Housing Initiative addresses our foreclosed and at risk homes and is a major focus of my administration. These funds will go a long way in helping us carry out our goals.”

The idea is to obtain vacant homes on Clarence Avenue and fix them up; plans are also in the works to buy some properties on Alameda and Lakewood avenues.

The city's submitted a proposal through a competitive process and was awarded the largest dollar amount possible for this round of funding, according to the release.

In April, the city for $125,000. The city purchased the home for $24,000 in 2009, and last fall finished a one-year, $100,000 rehabilitation project.

And in July, the city sold a home at 1269 Westlake Avenue for $95,000. 

Plans for other properties are in the works, including a home on ; and three other properties on Marlowe, Cranford and Gladys avenues.

Siley said recently that proceeds from the sales would go toward assisting the effort to clean up nuisance properties.