Bad News ~ No NSP Funding for Salisbury!

We received notification that Salisbury will not be receiving any Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funding. This is very sad news - we were certain that we were well positioned to receive an award. The NSP program was to have assisted communities hit hardest by the housing crisis. States were required to identify areas of greatest need based on the number of foreclosure starts and other housing-related statistics.

Here are the folks in NC who DID receive a portion of the $52 million in grants:

Local Government Recipients: City of Raleigh, $2.5 million; Wake County, $2.5 million; City of Charlotte, $2.5 million; City of Greensboro, $2.5 million; City of Winston-Salem, $2.5 million; City of High Point, $2.5 million; City of Gastonia, $2 million; Henderson/Vance County, $2 million; City of Durham, $2 million; City of Rocky Mount, $2 million; City of Lexington, $2 million.

Non-profit Agency Recipients: St. Augustine, in Raleigh, $2 million; Charlotte Housing Authority, $2 million; Guilford Habitat for Humanity, $2 million; Forsyth Habitat for Humanity, $2 million; Passage Home (in Wake County), $2 million; Greensboro Housing Authority, $2 million.

Statewide Agency/intermediary Recipients: Self-Help Credit Union, $2.5 million; N.C. Community Development Initiative, $3.5 million; and N.C. Housing Finance Agency, $4 million.

There should be additional NSP funding available in the federal stimulus package and the city is hoping to be eligible to apply from some of that funding. Decisions on this program are still being finalized at the federal level.

Perhaps we should feel fortunate. If others are in greater need than we are here in terms of foreclosures, we should count our blessings ~ regardless of how much we looked forward to the revisions this grant could have afforded our community. We will continue our preservation efforts here on a grass-roots level - one house at a time!