The Clark County Land Bank will build 24 to 30 new homes in Springfield — an investment of about $2 million — starting with four houses on the city's south side.
Its Affordable Homes Program helps families at or below 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Guideline purchase safe, decent and affordable newly constructed homes. That's about $96,450 annually for a family of four.
"The land bank had a significant number of parcels that have been tax foreclosed available to us, so we were able to take those on, combine some of the lots, be able to work through specific areas in the community that may have not seen investment in decades," said Kara Van Zant, development project manager for the land dank.
The organization partnered with Clayton Homes out of Bellefontaine to construct the houses.
An initial $1 million was provided for the program through the federal COVID relief American Rescue Plan Act, and the city of Springfield matched that, for a total of $2 million.
"We've anticipated to do 12 to 15 with the first $1 million, and then another with the second $1 million," Van Zant said.
The first four homes will be located near the Global Impact STEM academy.
“We're starting with four over by the Springfield Dome or Global STEM Academy, as most people know, and then we're hoping to grow from there,” she said.
The new homes will be about 1,300 square feet, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Each house will be built off-site and transported, landing on top of a built crawlspace.
"They have these beautiful kitchens that have appliances in them, they've got living rooms. We are building porches on each of the homes. They will have off-street parking, which is not always what you see in the city of Springfield," she said. "A few of them do have garages. We're kind of trying to not build the exact same house in a row, so they do have their own personality."
These houses were built in response to vacant land in infill areas that the community wanted to see revitalized, Van Zant said.
“So that's been over the last 10 years we've been working with these neighbors," she said. "And so they're very excited to see somebody who's coming in and investing in a community.”
Applications for the homes are now open, and Van Zant said she encourages everyone to apply.
"It's a very brief application for the initial steps, just four pages of getting to know what the family or the individual looks like, what their income qualifications are," she said. "So we can have start having those conversations."
To be eligible for one of the new Clark County homes, applicants must be able to apply for a mortgage, meet income qualifications and complete a homeowner education course.
Van Zant said the land bank also is working on a nearby project, in addition to the four new homes.
"Just two blocks down is where we're anticipating to build 10 new homes. So it's a multi-layer project that we are working on," she said.
