KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Millions of your tax dollars are sitting at metro housing agencies, and very few people are actually applying to use it. We know how you can tap into your money, and use it to buy a home. We've found more than $23.4 million available to rehab and buy foreclosed homes in Kansas City.
After 10 months of looking, Johnathon Bish is finally walking into his "new" home.
"We went through a lot of houses and a lot of heartache," Bish said.
Bish says investors with cash bought several homes from under his feet, but now he has federal cash and the
Neighborhood Stabilization Program (
NSP) backing him making it easier to buy a foreclosed home.
The majority of NSP funding to date is from the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA). More funding is on its way from stimulus funds to rehab even more homes.
"It's a good feeling for me to see a house that's gone to disrepair and create it into something it should be," Bish said.
Bish fell in love with a yellow home on Tracey Avenue as soon as he walked inside. He loves the spiral staircase, and Victorian feel. Bish will make some repairs himself, while
Neighborhood Housing Services of Kansas City, Inc. will make the rest.
The federal money will transform hundreds of homes in the metro.
"Everyone is waiting to see if this is going to be successful. This is not the first time a program came around that was going to be the panacea for the whole city," Neighborhood Housing Services President/CEO Mark Stalsworth said.
