SOUTH BEND — City leaders hope to follow the success of three downtown affordable housing projects that were recently awarded state money by targeting growth in a more vexing domain: neighborhoods with vacant lots.
South Bend officials are supporting a plan to bring 50 low-income units to 37 sites scattered across the city, primarily in and around the Near Northwest neighborhood. The developer for all the sites would be Advantix Development Corp., the nonprofit arm of the Evansville Housing Authority.
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Most of the units would feature a trendy lease-to-own model favored by a state housing agency that awards low-income housing tax credits, according to Brandon Shields, a business development manager for Advantix. Tenants who pay to rent a home for 15 years will then have the option to buy it, Shields said.
“It helps bridge that gap between renting your entire life and actually taking that step to own your first home,” he said while sharing the plans with Near Northwest residents Tuesday evening.
The project relies on city-owned parcels, which will be given to Advantix essentially for free as part of a development agreement, said Caleb Bauer, executive director of the Department of Community Investment. Bauer said the city acquired many of the lots through St. Joseph County’s tax certificate sale, which occurs after a property owner fails to pay taxes and no one else buys the property in a county auction.