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Pennsylvania Borough Considers Forming Land Bank

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

On January 22, newsitem.com published an article titled Mount Carmel considers land bank.

Mount Carmel considers land bank

MOUNT CARMEL – Piggy bank? What about pigsty bank?

The Mount Carmel Borough Council is considering forming a land bank system designed to turn trashed properties into treasure.

The borough council heard a presentation on land banking from Christopher Gulotta of the Gulotta Group, of Easton, at its work session Jan. 12. At its meeting Jan. 15, council members voted to send a letter to the Northumberland County Planning office indicating an interest in developing a land bank.

County Planning director Pat Mack said Gulotta is currently contracted with the state to provide consulting services for communities establishing land banks. For Mount Carmel, the Gulotta Group’s primary role will be to provide knowledge on establishing the land bank and building its business plan.

“He’ll give us guidance on what the land bank should do, can’t do,” said Mack. “He’s our technical help.”

Councilmember David Fantini, who also sits on the borough’s committee on code enforcement, planning and zoning, said if council opts to create a land bank, it will sign a five-year contract with the Gulotta Group. For its services, the borough will pay the company a percentage of the tax revenue from the flipped properties.

Legislation permitting the formation of land banks was passed in Pennsylvania in December 2012. Communities like Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Carlisle have already embraced the idea by establishing their own land banks while smaller communities have looked to create joint or county-wide land banks.

Mack said he hopes to build a multi-municipality land bank in Northumberland County with some of the most blighted communities as members. Coal Township and Shamokin have already signaled interest in joining such a venture, he said.

“Municipalities may not have the time to take or the manpower to undertake (major blight projects). The land bank would have that,” he said. “They’d have access to more grants and funding than a private person would.”

Land banking hinges on the broken windows theory – that if a building with a few broken windows is left unrepaired, vandals will be inspired to break more windows.

A single abandoned home left in disrepair will drag down the values of its surrounding properties, as well as the pride of the neighborhood. In contrast, properties repaired beyond the scope of their surroundings can positively influence neighboring property owners to invest in their own holdings.

A land bank allows a community to capitalize on these theories by focusing on eliminating blighted properties and bringing them back on the tax rolls.

“If you get it cleaned up, people take pride in their communities,” said Mack.

Fantini said the borough’s land bank would randomly buy a few blighted properties from the county repository at the judicial sale. The properties would be held for less than 18 months while the land bank renovates, rehabilitates or demolishes a structure to make the property more desirable.

“If they’re fixable, they’re going to fix them up and turn them into residential properties,” he said. “If they’re beyond repair, they’re going to tear them down.”

Because many of the lots in the borough are only 12 1/2 feet wide, many sites of torn down houses will be offered to adjoining property owners to bolster their properties.

Philadelphia offers similar opportunity for adjacent landowners to purchase certain blighted properties owned by the city for as little as $1. The buyer of a “side yard” is required to make necessary improvements to the property and is forbidden from selling the land for 10 years.

“It will make the (buyer’s) property value worth more,” said Fantini.

Mack said another possibility would be for the land bank to acquire multiple adjoining properties and consolidate them to sell to a developer.

Money from resold properties is reinvested into another set of blighted sites, generating a cycle of growth and repair.

Fantini said the initial upfront cost of the land bank makes it “a chance” but he likes the odds of it better than continuing to rely on private investments to increase tax rolls and improve the borough’s aesthetics.

“We have a lot of people that are buying up these blighted properties at the judicial sale,” he said. “They’re doing nothing with them and (the properties) are going right back into the sale again and they’re in worse shape.”

Please click here to view the article online.

About Safeguard
Safeguard Properties is the mortgage field services industry leader, preserving vacant and foreclosed properties across the U.S., Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and Guam. Founded in 1990 by Robert Klein and headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Safeguard provides the highest quality service to our clients by leveraging innovative technologies and proactively developing industry best practices and quality control procedures. Consistent with Safeguard’s values and mission, we are an active supporter of hundreds of charitable efforts across the country. Annually, Safeguard gives back to communities in partnership with our employees, vendors and clients. We also are dedicated to working with community leaders and officials to eliminate blight and stabilize neighborhoods. Safeguard is dedicated to preserving today and protecting tomorrow. Website: www.safeguardproperties.com.

City Land Bank May Erase Unoccupied Properties

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

On January 16, St. Joseph News-Press published an article discussing the plan of Missouri State Representative Delus Johnson (R) for the creation of a land bank for the city of St. Joseph.

City land bank may erase unoccupied property

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Local officials could have a new weapon, courtesy of state government, in a drive to thin out St. Joseph’s empty residences and buildings.

State Rep. Delus Johnson, R-St. Joseph, plans to file a bill during the legislative session that would create a land bank for the city — acquiring, managing and transferring properties. A land bank in Kansas City was recently started and implemented a system that returns vacant properties to productive use, places them back on tax rolls and contributes to community improvement. Over the past several years, as the housing market declined and the number of foreclosures increased, cities and counties throughout the nation began establishing land banks to fight the problem, the project’s website said.

The endeavor received a boost from the Center for Community Progress — a national organization dedicated to helping cities, towns, states and regions reintegrate vacant, abandoned and blighted properties into the economic and civic life of their communities.

“A land bank can give new life to dilapidated properties,” Mr. Johnson said. The idea gives adjacent landowners the ability to purchase abandoned property, he added.

“New life for abandoned properties can also lead to a safer neighborhood,” he said.

Mr. Johnson said he is pursuing further research into land banks and how they operate. It took Kansas City three years to create its version once a state law cleared a path, he said.

“I would like to find out past opposition in the Senate before introducing (the bill),” he said.

City Manager Bruce Woody said he is looking forward to the chance of working with Mr. Johnson. Reducing the amount of vacant structures is the ultimate goal.

“Our intent in it is to successfully aggregate properties” and quickly address those that have potential for deterioration, Mr. Woody said.

“The city staff has talked on it a couple of occasions,” he added. “So far, it’s worked,” Mr. Woody said of Kansas City’s experience.

Clint Thompson, the city’s director of planning and community development, said St. Joseph already has a program to buy and renovate bank-foreclosed properties.

St. Louis also has a land bank at its disposal, Mr. Woody said.

Please click here to view the article online.

New York County Hopes to Revive Vacant Properties with Land Bank Creation

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

On December 11, The Buffalo News published an article titled Cattaraugus County establishes land bank.

Cattaraugus County establishes land bank

LITTLE VALLEY – Cattaraugus County lawmakers have passed an act establishing the Cattaraugus County Land Bank Corp., a not-for-profit entity to take control of and redevelop vacant, abandoned and/or tax-delinquent properties in order to rebuild communities.

With vacant or abandoned properties causing potential danger to the health and safety of citizens, the hope is that the land bank would allow cities, towns and villages to acquire, redevelop and improve upon delinquent properties and convert them to productive uses.

Properties would be acquired as a result of foreclosure, purchase or purchase of the tax lien, but the land bank will not have the power of eminent domain. The land bank could secure funding, issue bonds, enter into contracts, and implement programs, projects and activities designed to create or stimulate economic and community development. All land corporation activities would be under the direction of the Department of Economic Development, Planning and Tourism. Each transfer of property would be approved or denied on a case by case basis.

Legislator William Sprague, D-Yorkshire, said that he felt there is a lot of merit to this program in the county, but said that he wants to see it “brought back for discussion in committee to tweak it a bit.” The resolution carried.

Please click here to view the article online.

About Safeguard
Safeguard Properties is the largest mortgage field services company in the U.S. Founded in 1990 by Robert Klein and based in Valley View, Ohio, the company inspects and maintains defaulted and foreclosed properties for mortgage servicers, lenders, and other financial institutions. Safeguard employs approximately 1,700 people, in addition to a network of thousands of contractors nationally.
Website: www.safeguardproperties.com.

Take it to the Bank: How Land Banks Are Strengthening America’s Neighborhoods

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

The Center for Community Progress has released a national land bank report titled Take it to the Bank: How Land Banks Are Strengthening America’s Neighborhoods.

The report is divided into three primary
sections:

Section One: The View from Our Seat – A brief introduction to land banks, including Community Progress’ perspective on best practices within this rapidly growing field of practice.
Section Two: National Scan – A summary of Community Progress’ 2013–2014 national scan of land banks, based on interviews with more than 40 land bank officials and online research on an additional 25 land banks.
Section Three: Meet the Land Banks – Portraits of seven land banks. Though each is independently incubating creative approaches to vacancy, when viewed side by side, they capture one of the greatest benefits of a land bank: adaptability.

This report depicts the local conditions, actors, and narratives that together comprise the national story of land banks. However, due to variations in state and local legal frameworks (described in greater detail in Section One), the movements in Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, New York, and elsewhere that together make up this national story are each worthy of more detailed description than can be addressed within the scope of this report. Nevertheless, the authors hope this report is of use to both practitioners and others with an interest or role in land banking in the United States.

Please click here to view the report in its entirety.

Minersville Leaders Discuss Fight Against Blight

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

On November 14, the Pottsville Republican Herald published an article covering a Minersville, PA borough meeting where local leaders discussed the creation of a landbank as one of the ways to stop and eliminate blight.

Minersville leaders discuss fight against blight

On November 14, the Pottsville Republican Herald published an article covering a Minersville, PA borough meeting where local leaders discussed the creation of a landbank as one of the ways to stop and eliminate blight.

Minersville leaders discuss fight against blight

MINERSVILLE — Legislative and local leaders told borough residents to remain vigilant in the fight against blight during a meeting Thursday at Minersville Fire and Rescue.

“Fight back. Don’t give up,” state Sen. David Argall, R-29, said.

Argall said people in the borough should not have to tolerate blight.

“It’s a cancer and you’ve seen it. It can spread and spread and spread,” he said.

Borough Manager Bobby Mahalchick said 204 citations have been issued in the borough for quality of life or property maintenance issues since Code Enforcement Officer Kyle Crouse started working in April 2013. In addition to citations, 174 quality of life tickets and 358 property maintenance letters were given. He added that 106 properties were condemned as unfit for human occupation and 13 blighted properties were demolished over the past 10 years.

“I’m not going to stand here and tell you its easy because it’s not,” Argall said about dealing with blight.

Argall said blight is a problem throughout the county and beyond.

“I don’t know any community that doesn’t have any blight,” he said.

Rep. Neal P. Goodman, D-123, said he once lived next to a blighted area and went through legal means to have the issue resolved.

“I know if you live next to one of these properties that it seems like you are crawling along,” he said of the lengthy process. “… We can pass all the laws we want but it comes down to enforcement.”

To help deal with blight, Goodman suggested a land bank be established at the county level.

A land bank, according to Smart Growth America, is a national organization that advocates for efforts at smart growth practices.

“Land banks are public authorities created to acquire, hold, manage and develop vacant properties. Land banks aim to convert vacant properties that have been neglected by the open market into productive use, thereby transforming neighborhood liabilities into assets,” according to Smart Growth America’s official website.

Though enforcement and management of blight is a step in the right direction, the process can be difficult because “blight and crime go together,” District Attorney Christine Holman said.

If a neighborhood has more than one blighted property, it can become an area for drug deals and places of drug use, she said.

One woman, who declined to give her name, said a property on Spruce Street is in disrepair and is blighted.

“The roof is about ready to fall off the front,” she said, adding the porch and the foundation are also in bad shape.

Crouse said he was aware of the property and the owner has been informed. The woman said she understands the house is going into foreclosure.

Crouse said he and borough police Chief Michael Combs have been working on a blight list.

The list presently has 35 vacant properties on it, which will eventually be narrowed to between 10 and 20.

“We should have it for the December council meeting,” Crouse said.

The next borough council meeting is 7 p.m. Dec. 9.

Carol McCloskey, and her husband, Gary McCloskey, both 69 and of Minersville, said the blight meeting was informative.

Carol said she wants those with blighted properties to “clean it up. Take care of the property.”

Please click here to view the article online.

Land Banks Fight Blight in Mahoning and Trumbull Counties

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

On November 11, Youngstown NBC affiliate WFMJ-TV posted a report discussing the plans of two Ohio county landbanks to counter the effects of blight and re-purpose vacant and abandoned properties.

Land Banks fight blight in Mahoning and Trumbull Counties

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – You may be surprised at how much money is owed to local governments in un-paid property taxes. It’s not only an economic problem, but it creates blight. Trumbull county is using a land bank to re-purpose delinquent properties.

Trumbull and Mahoning counties each have more than $30-million in delinquent property taxes on their books. To help eliminate eye-sores and unpaid taxes Trumbull county decided to establish a land bank.

“We were the third created land bank in the state of Ohio,” said Trumbull County Treasurer Sam Lamancusa.

The mission of a land bank is to return vacant and abandoned properties to productive use.

“Anything that the treasurers office forecloses on is moved from foreclosure straight into the land bank,” the Treasurer said.

In recent years the treasurer says predatory lending pushed to county’s delinquency rate up from 7-percent to around 14-percent, as bad lending lead to bank walk-a-ways. To help manage the land bank the treasurer collaborated with the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership.

“It gives us the ability to return these blighted, vacant properties to productive use in the community,” Matt Martin of the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership said.

One of the ways they are doing that is with the side-lot incentive program in which a neighbor can take ownership of an adjacent lot where a vacant house was removed. Richard Mollard jumped at the chance to turn his side lot into green space and wishes more people would do the same.

“Everybody should jump in and get in on this land bank thing, it only costs a few dollars to maintain it and makes a little bit of an improvement on it,” Mollard said.

Vacant houses that are not too far gone can be renovated and upgraded.

“What we’re really planning for is the kind of thing where a property that we renovated and made for sale so that we can create home ownership out of these vacant properties,” Martin said.

“If the house can’t be rehabbed, we take it down and make it into green space and the people are happy not having dilapidated buildings around them,” said Mike Robinson of the Treasurers office.

The green space parks and community gardens are helping to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods. Treasurer Lamancusa says in it’s short life, the land bank has impacted 1,500 properties already, and he believes it has the potential to help cut the county’s delinquent tax rate by half.

“We can save these homes and hopefully put some people in these homes that want to call downtown Warren, the Warren area home. It’s doing exactly what the program was designed to do it’s revitalizing the neighborhoods,” said Lamancusa.

More information about the Mahoning Land Bank can be found here

Information about the Trumbull County Land Bank can be found by following this link

Please click here to view the report online.

Philadelphia Land Bank Releases Plan to Tackle Vacancy

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Updated 1/26: On January 22, PLANETIZEN published a post titled Strategic Plan for Philadelphia Land Bank Gains Approval.

Link to article

Updated 12/2: On December 2, philly.com posted an article titled Council panel OKs ‘strategic plan’ for Philly Land Bank.

Link to article

On October 2, news website PLANPHILLY published an article detailing the Philadelphia Land Bank’s recently released five year strategic plan draft.

Philadelphia Land Bank releases plan to tackle vacancy

The Philadelphia Land Bank, a nascent agency organized to streamline the redevelopment of thousands of Philadelphia’s vacant and tax-delinquent properties, released a draft of a strategic plan on Wednesday recommending a number of goals the new body should pursue over the next five years.

The plan, which was written by a team led by Philadelphia-based Interface Studios, is the result of four months of analysis of data provided by various city agencies and meetings with dozens of advocacy groups and city officials who wrestled the Land Bank into existence.

The Land Bank board will solicit community feedback at a public hearing in mid-October and complete a final draft of the plan by the end of the month. The plan will then be sent to City Council for its approval.

Those who’ve followed the development of the Land Bank closely over the past few years won’t find any major surprises in the draft plan. Its overarching goal is simple: “to return vacant and tax delinquent property to productive reuse.” Deceptively simple, perhaps, given that the Land Bank itself wouldn’t have been created if those few words didn’t represent an intricate, elusive goal for Philadelphia and other cities around the country.

The Land Bank is intended to address the vacancy problem by consolidating ownership of city-owned properties, acquiring privately owned tax-delinquent properties, clearing tax liens and tangled titles, and selling or otherwise transferring properties in its inventory for development or other community uses. According to the plan, it will seek to promote new affordable and market-rate housing development, the creation of new businesses and the expansion of existing ones, the vitality of urban agriculture, and the availability of open space and green infrastructure.

As part of the strategic planning process, Interface Studio—along with partners Real Estate Strategies, Inc. and Lamar Wilson Associates—provided an updated inventory of vacant and tax-delinquent parcels in Philadelphia.

Roughly 8,000 vacant parcels are currently under some form of public ownership in Philadelphia and not committed to a specific project.
Another 24,000 properties are vacant and tax-delinquent but privately owned, according to the plan.
Of those 32,000 potential Land Bank properties, around 9,000 are vacant buildings.
The team identified more than 100 “assemblage opportunities,” each involving more than 10 vacant properties.
2,100 vacant lots sit next to homes whose owners are up-to-date on their taxes.

The data used to populate the report came from the city’s own public inventory of vacant land, property surveys conducted by the City Planning Commission and by Interface Studio, the Water Department and the Office of Innovation and Technology and—in the case of privately owned, tax-delinquent and vacant properties—the Revenue Department.

In an interview with PlanPhilly on Monday, John Carpenter, a deputy director for the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, said that the various city agencies that hold property were helpful and forthcoming with the information. But Scott Page, the founder and principal of Interface Studio, acknowledged that the data still isn’t complete.

“We say in the report a number of times that the data is imperfect, and everyone is aware that that data is imperfect,” said Page. “One thing we learned in the process is that regardless of what dataset we looked at—whether it was Water Department or L&I or a combination of both or even the Planning Commission district data—it didn’t change the geography of where there’s a concentration of vacancy, it just changed the intensity … In terms of where there are real opportunities for the Land Bank to play a role, the geographies aren’t really changing.”

The plan outlines seven goals for the Land Bank. The first, a citywide goal, is to return individual vacant properties to productive use by identifying and marketing individual development opportunities (IDOs), transferring one-off vacant properties to adjacent owners as side yards, and preserving existing community gardens.

The next set of goals are focused on specific areas with high levels of vacant properties where the Land Bank will “proactively acquire, assemble, and dispose of property for specific purposes based on determined need and opportunity.” The goals are:

Promoting equitable development by supporting existing initiatives, such as Council President Darrell Clarke’s plan to build 1,500 new affordable housing units, and working to preserve affordability in neighborhoods undergoing gentrification. The plan recommends targeting new affordable housing in areas with good access to food and transit, and with a high concentration of “cost-burdened renters.”
Fostering private development by offering land for market-rate projects that include affordable housing components.
Supporting economic development by acquiring and repurposing properties on neighborhood commercial corridors and adjacent to existing businesses.
Protecting and increasing open space in areas that lack it.

There are focus zones where those goals will be pursued.

The final goals outlined in the plan emphasize the transparent and efficient operation of the Land Bank. Its planning should coincide with the plans already underway as part of the Planning Commission’s Philadelphia2035 process, it recommends. Data should continue to form the foundation of Land Bank operations, and the public and stakeholder groups should have frequent opportunities to participate in its development. Additionally, properties within the Land Bank should be actively marketed to keep property moving into productive hands.

The immediate priorities of the Land Bank, according to the plan, should be to pursue the low-lying fruit, dispositions that establish the entity as an efficient, successful new tool for tackling vacancy in the city. That could include early actions like acquiring and transferring individual properties for side yards, infill developments, and existing community gardens. Additionally, the Land Bank should selectively acquire private tax-delinquent properties to enhance the marketability of vacant properties that are already in the public inventory.

Jennifer Kates, an aide to Councilwoman María Quiñones-Sánchez, who sponsored the Land Bank legislation, and a member of the Land Bank board, said that the data analysis underpinning the strategic plan is a significant accomplishment that will guide a more productive approach to undoing vacancy and tax delinquency. Kates also said that she’s excited about the inclusion of “decision trees,” pictured below, that will help shape the Land Bank’s approach to finding new uses for vacant properties.

“These [decision trees] represent a major step forward in approaching property acquisition and disposition strategically,” Kates wrote in an email. “One of the greatest frustrations with the old system is that there is so little guidance about what uses are viable for a particular location. For example, is infill housing development possible now, or in the near term? Does parking make sense at this location? Is this a potential assembly site? Finally we are in a position to have that kind of guidance.”

When it is submitted to Council, the plan will also include specific targets for acquisition and disposition of properties, for specific uses, in each of the next five years. Those targets will be broken down into seven end uses: side yards and parking spaces, individual development opportunities, existing community gardens, affordable housing, market-rate housing, economic development, and open space. In the current draft, the plan sets a target of having all 8,000 identified publicly owned vacant properties in the Land Bank by the end of 2016. By the end of the 5-year period, it recommends the disposition of 2,750 of those properties. No targets have been set yet for acquisition of privately owned tax-delinquent properties.

Councilwoman Sánchez did not respond to a request for comment on this story. Council President Darrell Clarke’s office said it would withhold comments until a public hearing is held.

Please click here to view the article online.

Please click here to view the full plan draft online.

Rice Bill to Allow Municipalities to Regulate Upkeep of Properties in Foreclosure Now Law

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

On August 15, Governor Chris Christie signed into law NJ S1229.

Rice Bill to Allow Municipalities to Regulate Upkeep of Properties in Foreclosure Now Law

A bill sponsored by Senator Ronald L. Rice which would help local officials keep their municipalities free of blight caused by abandoned, foreclosed properties has been signed into law.

“When a home in foreclosure sits vacant, it can become a magnet for criminal activity and can deteriorate to cause an economic blight on the remaining homes within the community,” said Senator Rice, D-Essex. “When these abandoned homes fall into disrepair, the creditors who are legally responsible for them should step up to clean up the property. This law will ensure that if they fail to do this in a timely manner, they will be held accountable.”

The law, S1229, authorizes municipalities to adopt ordinances to regulate the care, maintenance, security and upkeep of a vacant and abandoned property in foreclosure. It will allow municipal code enforcement officials to issue a citation against creditors who are in the process of foreclosing on residential property if the condition of the property is found to be in violation of the municipal ordinance. The creditor would be required to correct the violation within 30 days of receipt of the violation or within 10 days if the violation presents an imminent threat to public health and safety. A municipal court could impose a fine on a creditor for up to $1,500 for each day that the property is deemed to be in violation, under the law.

The law will also allow governing bodies to hold accountable out-of-state creditors by requiring that they designate an in-state representative to handle the care and upkeep of properties in foreclosure for which they hold the deed. A creditor found to be in violation of the ordinance because the creditor did not appoint an in-state representative or agent would by subject to a fine of $2,500 for each day of the violation.

The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 35-0. It was approved by the Assembly by a vote of 76-1. The law takes effect immediately.

To view the online article, please click here.

OK HB 2620 Pending in Senate; City Says Registry is First Step Against Blight

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Updated 7/8/14: NewsOk published an article titled Realtors, OKC exchange views on blight.

Link to article

Updated 5/23/14: HB 2620 has been signed by Governor Mary Fallin.

Link to enrolled text

On April 3, NewsOK published an article titled Planning Chief: Registry First Step in Fighting Blight.

Please click here to view the Engrossed HB 2620. Following is the aforementioned article.

Planning chief: Registry first step in fighting blight

Oklahoma City’s planning chief says the city’s vacant and abandoned buildings registry is the “first step” in a comprehensive effort to combat blight.

The registry is under attack in the Legislature, where a bill would prohibit cities from creating property registries and outlaw existing lists.

Interim Planning Director Aubrey Hammontree says a study showed abandoned buildings “significantly reduce surrounding property values and pose threats to public health and safety.”

Prompted in part by the study’s findings, the Oklahoma City Council adopted the city’s registry in December.

The study:

Counted more than 12,000 vacant and abandoned buildings in Oklahoma City.

Found owners of blighted properties pay a tenth of the amount owners of occupied homes pay in property tax, sales tax, franchise fees and other charges.

Found run-down houses and commercial buildings push everyone’s property values down, depriving owners of $2.7 billion in unrealized value.

Hammontree says Oklahoma City officials “are prepared to address this blight through a multi-pronged program, and the registry is the first step.”

The Oklahoma City registry sets initial registration and annual renewal fees for owners of vacant buildings.

Exceptions are included for property being rehabbed or marketed for sale.

Realtors pushing the registry ban have especially opposed fees and fines associated with the Oklahoma City registry.

House Bill 2620 was passed by the Oklahoma House last month.

It is pending in the Senate, where it was approved by a committee this week and sent to the Senate floor.

Please click here to view the online article.

Safeguard Participates at the NLC Conference

Posted on September 13, 2018October 10, 2018 by Safeguard

National League of Cities
Congressional City Conference
Washington DC
March 8, 2014 – March 12, 2014

Safeguard Properties was honored once again to participate in the National League of Cities (NLC) Congressional City Conference in Washington, DC.

In returning to the municipal trade organization’s annual event, representing the mortgage servicing industry, Safeguard was provided the opportunity to address the Small Cities Council. The council is comprised primarily of mayors and councilmembers from communities with populations less than 50,000. Michael Halpern, director of community initiatives shared with the many attendees an overview of the servicing industry, the various roles and responsibilities respective to all, and general procedures and policies utilized to protect properties and neighborhoods. Attendees, many of whom represented cities heavily damaged by the foreclosure crisis, were eager to learn of the information, assistance, and solutions that Safeguard and its client network can provide to their respective communities to address vacant and abandoned properties.

Compliance Connections ^® was well received by the audience who voiced several concerns about inability to identify and communicate with servicers and field services companies. Through Safeguard’s involvement as a NLC Corporate Partner, the community initiatives and high risk departments have cultivated many new relationships. We have offered presentations at multiple conferences hosted by state municipal leagues and have spoken one-on-one with key decision makers, including numerous mayors, councilmembers, elected officials, city managers, and department chairs, to share the best practices and innovative solutions developed by the industry.

Safeguard would like to thank the leadership of NLC for the continued opportunity to share the industry’s message. We value our ongoing partnership to preserve and protect homes and communities.