(a) The Commissioner of Housing shall, within existing resources of the department, establish an urban revitalization pilot program to foster the revitalization and stabilization of urban neighborhoods by facilitating the acquisition and renovation of one-to-four family homes and prioritizing owner-occupancy of such homes. Such program shall be implemented in one or more distressed municipalities, as defined in section 32-9p. The commissioner may contract with one or more state-wide nonprofit organizations to administer the program.

(b) The goal of the program shall be to increase homeownership in targeted neighborhoods containing high proportions of one-to-four family homes, giving priority to promoting owner-occupancy in buildings that are for sale, vacant, deteriorated, in foreclosure, bank-owned or investor-owned. The program administrator shall target neighborhoods in which concentrated resources can have a substantial impact on revitalizing and stabilizing the surrounding community. The program administrator shall recruit community stakeholders to provide active support for the program, including local banks, local boards of realtors, neighborhood revitalization zone committees, community-based organizations, community development financial institutions and similar entities. The program administrator shall, as necessary to accomplish program goals:

(1) Draw on diverse public and private funding sources and programs, including foundations, local loan funds and programs administered by departments or agencies other than the Department of Housing, including the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, and use public funds to leverage private resources;

(2) Provide financing or investment to support property purchase, rehabilitation, construction, demolition, energy efficiency and aesthetic improvements, including provision of financial products that promote homeownership, such as down payment assistance, and identify other financial resources to support such activities;

(3) Offer incentives to investors to develop tenants into owners, apply income restrictions to housing units in order to ensure affordability, and conduct energy efficiency improvements in order to meet weatherization goals;

(4) Identify and coordinate access for program participants to rental assistance and foreclosure prevention resources and to other resources that will increase homeownership, stabilize or decrease occupancy costs and stabilize neighborhoods;

(5) Provide assistance to individuals who are or who will become homeowners and to nonprofit and for-profit entities that will purchase and rehabilitate properties to sell to individuals who will become homeowners;

(6) Provide support services for program participants who are or who will become homeowners so as to maximize the likelihood of their success in maintaining homeownership on a long-term basis, including training in skills necessary to be an effective landlord and assistance in resolving problems that may arise after closing on a home;

(7) Identify and structure incentives to encourage participation in the program by lenders, investors and developers with a goal of promoting homeownership; and

(8) Assist program participants in locating purchase financing and counseling before and after any purchase and direct such participants to programs that provide deferred, low or no interest or forgivable loans, including the Rental Housing Revolving Loan Fund established pursuant to section 8-37vv.

(c) Any person who receives assistance through the program established by this section to purchase a home shall agree (1) to occupy such home or a unit in such home as such person's primary residence for not less than five years, or (2) to transfer such home to a person who will agree to occupy such home or a unit in such home as such person's primary residence for not less than five years. Priority for participation in the program may be given to persons who will become first-time homebuyers and to persons who are living in a neighborhood targeted by the program.

(d) The Commissioner of Housing shall establish the parameters of the program not later than October 1, 2012, and shall designate one or more municipalities to participate in the program not later than January 1, 2013. The commissioner, in accordance with section 11-4a, shall submit the following to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to housing: (1) A status report on the program not later than February 1, 2013; (2) an interim report on the program not later than January 1, 2014; and (3) a final report on the program not later than January 1, 2015.

(June 12 Sp. Sess. P.A. 12-1, S. 197; P.A. 13-234, S. 2.)

History: June 12 Sp. Sess. P.A. 12-1 effective June 15, 2012; pursuant to P.A. 13-234, references to Commissioner of Economic and Community Development and Department of Economic and Community Development were changed editorially by the Revisors to references to Commissioner of Housing and Department of Housing, respectively, effective June 19, 2013.