Reinventing Distressed Neighborhoods

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Story Published: Feb 4, 2010 at 6:29 PM PDT

By David Klugh

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YAKIMA -- East, west, north, south, it's the bruise that just seems to grow across some of Yakima's most visible neighborhoods.
Walk in any direction from Downtown and within a block or two...

Archie Mathews is the director of Neighborhood Development Services. "They tend to attract graffiti. They tend to attract vandalism. They also tend to attract arson."

What they don't attract are investors… until now.
For the last four months, the city's Neighborhood Development Services department has been sitting on a $650,000 gift. Money to invest in homes tagged, trashed, foreclosed and forgotten by every sane investor in town.

"I want to purchase homes that nobody else wants, that nobody else will take the time to make the condition better in the neighborhood."

And there's the key; the neighborhood. This Neighborhood Stabilization Program is about rehabbing homes that can reinvent entire neighborhoods. After 4-months of searching for just the right one, Mathews just closed on this little charmer.

"We're probably gonna have to strip all the walls out… "

Dan Cochran lives a couple houses down. Last weekend, he lost his new television to burglars. So, the plan's potential isn't lost on him.

"Oh heck ya. Because the more good neighbors you get in, the more the crooks go, man, there's people watching, there's people doing yard work, there's too much visibility."

"I was just about to give up…"

Amber Santoyo is just the kind of low income, first time buyer that could add visibility to the neighborhood. She and her husband would like to be the first in line for a home like this.

"I've dreamed of it since I was 9 years old. And I've always said by the time my oldest son is 5, I would have my home so he could say, mom, this is ours."

Dan Cochran has great expectations for this program. "The more good people you bring into an area, pretty soon, this is gonna become the luxury neighborhood."

While that may be a bit optimistic, those kinds of expectations are exactly what help to turn the hood back into a neighborhood again.

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