Buena Vista house is now home sweet home for family

BUENA VISTA -- Rachel and Robert Velazquez are living a young couple's dream -- a new house with a big yard and a mortgage they can manage.The Velazquezes' dream came true because it happened to intersect with a new federally funded, township-run project.
The project's purpose is to get rid of abandoned or foreclosed housing. The Velazquezes' new home, on the 1000 block of Route 54, is the second house to emerge from that project.
The first house in the program, on Rockefeller Lane, was rebuilt. But the Route 54 property was built from scratch after an existing rancher was demolished.
Local and Atlantic County government officials celebrated what Mayor Chuck Chiarello called a "miracle of transformation" with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday.
The Velazquez family, including 9-month-old Isaiah, moved into the house in June. The family is from Vineland.
"It was a great program for us because the township afforded us the chance to get this wonderful, new house at a very affordable price," Robert Velazquez said.
A relative told the family about the program.
"We were looking to buy a house anyway," he said. "And everything we saw in our price range was nothing near in size what we got here, and way more expensive."
Buena Vista set up the initiative using an $826,908 Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant it was awarded in May 2009. The aid is channeled through the state Department of Community Affairs.
In 2009, the township's hope was to squeeze that grant hard enough to acquire, fix and sell six houses.
The township is working on a third property, on Meyner Lane. A fourth house will depend on whether enough money is left, the mayor said.
Triad Associates, a consulting firm, worked to get the grant for the township.
Triad Chairman Michael Zumpino said several hundred people applied, but annual income limits and tight credit conditions cut deeply into the list of eligible buyers. Approved buyers must obtain their own mortgages.
The Route 54 property went through foreclosure last year, and the township bought it in May 2010 for $38,000.
The Velazquez family purchased the house, which sits on about 2.8 acres, for $106,000.
The township wants to keep money from the home sales, minus its costs, to roll back into the program. New Jersey hasn't agreed to that idea.
"The state is trying to 'recap' as much funds from grants as they can from wherever," Chiarello said. "So we've been kind of fighting a little undercurrent to make that stay with us."
The township has about $250,000 left from the 2009 grant.
The Cumberland Empowerment Zone also received money from the same federal program. Its funds are paying for five houses in Vineland and six in Millville.
Source http://www.thedailyjournal.com/