City to Focus on Improving Three Streets Designated as ‘Slum and Blighted’ Areas

JAMESTOWN – City officials will be using federal funding to target three slum and blighted areas in the city.

On Monday city Development Director Vince DeJoy met with the city council’s housing committee  to provide more details on the three targeted areas that have been identified in the city’s recently updated five-year strategic plan and 2015 consolidated plan, which includes a focus on improving buildings in the downtown section of Second St., a stretch of North Main St. and an area of E. Second St. – east of Winsor St.

• RELATED: 2015 Plan for HUD Funding Completed, Public Comment Period Now Underway

Following the meeting, City Housing Committee Chair Marie Carrubba said that officials would prefer to use different terminology to describe the neighborhoods but that’s not going to happen.

“We did not like the term ‘slum and blighted’ but unfortunately it is HUD designation that we are required to use,” Carrubba said. “In a meeting that the department of development had with HUD this year, they indicated that they would have to use this designation. Seventy percent of the action plan can be used to address low to moderate income, and 30 percent can be used to remove slum and blighted areas.”

Carrubba also said that there are a couple of reasons for focusing on those areas of the city.

“We’re hoping to not only improve the looks [of the buildings] but also the lives of the residents in these areas and stabilizing neighborhoods,” Carrubba said. “Some work will include demolition but some business owners are already looking into moving into these areas.”

Any changes to the designated area won’t happen overnight. The three are included in the city’s 2015-19 consolidated plan, meaning that they will be using a portion of funding from the federal department of housing and urban development during the next five years.

This year, the city will receive Just over $1,050,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding and nearly $250,000 in HOME funding from HUD to help address items listed in its consolidated plan – which is still available for public review and comment up to May 26, prior to being sent to Washington at the end of this month.