Sec. 8-208c. Urban revitalization pilot program. Goals. Reports. (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;