FLINT – Michigan is giving $2.6 million to Genesee County's land bank to demolish and improve 225 blighted properties in Flint's Civic Park neighborhood.
The Michigan State Housing Development Authority is making the grant with money from the federal Hardest Hit Fund.
The land bank now owns about half of the properties in the Civic Park area, and 71 more properties are recent tax foreclosures. The land bank says most are in need of demolition and greening because of deterioration and theft by metal and other scrappers.
State housing authority acting executive director Wayne Workman says the award will allow strategic demolitions and help preserve the neighborhood.
The Genesee County Land Bank also received $20 million last October to demolish, green, and maintain more than 1,600 properties.
