Blight being erased one parcel at a time
A rendering of a four-unit, two-story handicapped accessible rental building to be built in Jefferson Borough, where two blighted houses recently stood.
Seated from left, Lucy Rooth, executive director of Accessible Dreams, presents David G. Mirkovich, executive director of the Greene County Redevelopment Authority (GCRA) with a dollar, symbolic of the transfer of property in Jefferson where a handicapped accessible dwelling will replace two blighted residences. Next to Mirkovich is Dave Ball, director of operations for Accessible Dreams. Standing are Sandra Dulik, vice-president of Jefferson Borough council, her husband and fellow council member, Steven T. Dulik, and Marcia Sonneborn, chairman of the redevelopment authority.
JEFFERSON – Last January, it seemed like an impossible dream that two dilapidated houses along Route 188 in Jefferson might be replaced by a modern four-unit dwelling.
One was vacant for nearly a decade and had been through upset and judicial sales with no takers.
Dave Mirkovich, director of Greene County Redevelopment Authority, saw what others did not – an opportunity. Tuesday morning the dream moved closer to a reality when Mirkovich sold the parcels for $1 to Accessible Dreams, a nonprofit developer of barrier-free homes for persons with disabilities.
“It was vacant maybe seven to 10 years. It had back taxes and went to upset and judicial sales but nobody wanted it so I put a bid in with tax claim to buy it. At the time, a woman owned the little house next to it,” Mirkovich said. “I knew the one house was on too small of a lot to do much with it, so I asked her if she was interested in selling.”
The combined properties ended up being perfect for the Accessible Dreams project.
“At the time, Accessible Dreams wanted to get a foothold in Greene County. They got a hold of me and asked if I had any land or knew of any they could work with,” Mirkovich said. “We were coming up on the application time for the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement fund (PHARE) grant then.” PHARE funds provide the mechanism by which allocated state, federal and outside funds are used to assist with the creation, rehabilitation and support of affordable housing throughout the Commonwealth.
Lucy Rooth, executive director of Accessible Dreams, said the partnership with the redevelopment authority to do the Jefferson Borough project is “a great example of a non-profit and government partnering for the betterment of the community.”
“It made the (PHARE) application much stronger. They could say ‘we have a commitment on land if you give us the money to build,'” Mirkovich said. “The next problem was they didn’t have the money to demolish the two houses. We (the authority) tried to do whatever we could to help out so we agreed to do the demolition.” Those costs came in around $22,000.
When Accessible Dreams could go to other backers who were on the fence about contributing money to the project it helped to see the commitment was already there, Mirkovich said.
A groundbreaking for the two-story, four-unit dwelling is expected to take place in February or March. The bottom level will be completely handicapped accessible while the second floor will be accessed by stairs for able-bodied tenants. Rooth said the stairs will be built to support a chairlift in the event the upstairs tenants eventually need assistance climbing stairs to their apartment.
Jefferson Borough Council Vice President Sandra Dulik said she sees the new structure as a win-win for the borough, even though the borough will not collect any reel estate taxes.
“Money is still going to be brought back into the community (by tenants putting money into local businesses there). It also will improve the value of the neighborhood,” Dulik said. “We weren’t collecting any money from the properties anyway.”
When Mirkovich was hired in early 2012 to find an answer for Greene County’s housing crisis he started with a clean slate. The directive was for him to find a way to purchase houses and rehabilitate them or to tear blighted properties down and start over.
“You win some and you lose some (financially),” Mirkovich said. “The goal is to get as close to the break even point as possible and maybe come out with a little to the positive to put back into the program.”
A residence on Adelaide Street in Bobtown was the first success story under his helm. For nine years it sat vacant and property taxes went unpaid. A leaking roof caused the kitchen ceiling to collapse, interior walls were damaged, and the furnace, water and gas meters had been removed. On the outside the house didn’t appear all that bad, he said.
“The average price of a house in Bobtown sells for around $38,000. I knew if we used a contractor we were looking at probably $70,000,” Mirkovich said. “Still, if that’s all it costs the county to fix one of these properties up, get it back on the tax rolls, give someone a nice place to live, and raises the value of the properties around it, then look what we’ve done.”
Mirkovich found a way around the cost by working with crews from the state Correctional Institution at Greene’s Community Works Program to complete some of the work. Contractors were hired to do the rest.
The house recently sold for $42,000.
With monies contributed by the townships where Mirkovich is acquiring properties, PHARE monies, county contributions and other sources, a slow bite is being taken out of the blight that has long plagued a county where housing is at a premium.
“I’m trying to do these and make them clean, livable and nice, no frills, nothing fancy. I’m not trying to make the Taj Mahal. The market can’t afford it,” Mirkovich said. “It is a tough situation trying to take these really run down houses, fix them up and make them affordable. That’s the challenge.”