Wyandotte Showcases First Home Renovated Through $8M Federal Grant Program

The federal government awarded Wyandotte nearly $8 million last year to improve the city's housing stock.

That work has now come to fruition with the announcement that the first of 44 houses to go through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 is ready to go on the market to be sold.

The three-bedroom house at 213 Cedar was built in 1893. It has big front and back porches, a two-car garage, two bathrooms, new energy-efficient appliances and a brand-new geothermal heating and cooling system that will cost the homeowner only $28 a month year-round. Tours of the house will be given from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 16.

The house was purchased out of foreclosure by the city, completely remodeled from stem to stern—plumbing, wiring and all—and will be offered to a qualifying low-income family through a lottery process mandated by the federal grant money that makes the program possible.

"This house was totally gutted all the way down to the studs,” said architect Jay Sarnecki of Sarnecki & Associates of Wyandotte. “This was a two-family house.”

He sounds proud when he talks about the project, and about the other homes he has worked on that will be available soon to low- and moderate-income families through the program.

Wyandotte Is One of a Lucky Few

The program began last year, when Wyandotte got $7.8 million in neighborhood stabilization grant money through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The city is using it to buy abandoned, vacant and foreclosed properties. Wyandotte was one of only 12 other communities in the state and 56 entities—cities or states—nationwide that got the grant money, and officials are on target with the federal requirements, making good use of the funds to revitalize Wyandotte’s neighborhoods.

Some houses, including a rental unit next to 213 Cedar, are being torn down, and new homes are being built through the grant money on appropriate sites. Others, such as the Cedar Street home, are being rehabilitated.

Energy efficiency is a major player in the process, and each of the 44 homes will have a new geothermal heating and cooling system, as well as lots of insulation, new windows and Energy Star appliances. The eventual homeowners will benefit from the grant-assisted buying method, and also from the energy efficiency.

“We can save them a lot through lower utilities,” said City Engineer Mark Kowalewski.

Geothermal heating and cooling starts with the drilling of a narrow 300-foot well. The temperature underground is a consistent 55 degrees, no matter how hot or cold the weather gets on the surface. The geothermal system works as a closed loop, circulating water—the energy transfer medium—to extract that consistent heat from the ground, compress it and distribute it through a heat pump and duct system as warm air. The cooling process uses the same procedure in reverse, taking heat from the air of the house and moving it into the earth loop.

The system is “carbon neutral,” Kowalewski said, and is quieter than a regular furnace system, as well.

“You save quite a bit on your hot water, too,” he said.

Wyandotte also is making use of “advanced framing” building techniques, which reduce the amount of lumber used to construct a new house and increase the amount of insulation used. The city, working with Building Science Corp., has had to conduct classes for contractors involved in the project to teach them the new and more sustainable advanced framing techniques, which have proven to be effective, Sarnecki said.

Michigan State Housing Development Authority regulators are so impressed with the geothermal and advanced framing techniques Wyandotte is incorporating into the home rehabilitation and construction that they’ve asked city officials for a presentation.

“We’re going to set up a webinar on geothermal and advanced framing,” Kowalewski said. “Hopefully, MSHDA adopts it as a standard for their housing.”

The first 25 percent of the Wyandotte homes readied for the market through the grant program must be sold to low-income households—a range from $23,250 a year for a one-person household to $43,850 a year for a household of eight adults. The rest will open up to low- and moderate-income buyers. The moderate-income range starts at $55,800 for a one-person household and goes to $105,240 for an eight-adult household.

How to Apply

• Pick up an application from the Engineering Department at . Fill it out and return it with the required documentation.
• Once your income is verified as eligible under program guidelines, officials will look at your credit rating. If it’s lower than 640, you can attend free credit repair counseling to raise it, and try again. If your credit rating is acceptable, your application (for a cost of $35 to confirm the credit rating) will be submitted to the city’s approved home counseling agency—Lighthouse of Oakland County.
• You then must take an eight-hour course on buying a home—four hours of classroom work that will be offered at , and four individual hours. The counselors will help to determine how much of a mortgage you can afford. The classwork costs $212, but comes off your required 1 percent down payment.
• Then you submit a purchase agreement, a mortgage price and your class certificate to the city, and you’re in the lottery for the purchase of one of the homes in the program.
• If your name is drawn, congratulations! You can buy the house. If not, you’re back in the lottery for the next drawing when more of the 44 homes become available.

The homes are a bargain, to say the least. Take the one at 213 Cedar that’s on the market now. The city has put more than $200,000 into the remodeling. The house is appraised for $100,000, setting that as the purchase price. Applicants through the program, however, are eligible for an additional discount, as well.

“Therefore, the maximum purchase price is $82,500,” said Santina Daly, the city’s marketer for the program.

The price includes a range, dishwasher, microwave oven and a washer and dryer—all energy-efficient, of course. It also includes all the wiring for phone, cable TV and Internet service.

“We’ll be accepting applications until February 2013, “ Daly said.

Money from selling the houses goes back into the program.

How does the city benefit?

“It gets the properties back on the tax rolls, and cleans up blight,” Daly said.

Vacant homes in foreclosure bring down everyone’s property values, Kowalewski said, adding that the new program "stabilizes the neighborhood."

The program also creates jobs, putting builders and other people to work, and helps the economy in general, Daly said.