From Mayor Bill Finch:
Mayor Bill Finch and local developer Steve Eaton will celebrate the construction of three homes at the corner of Harral Avenue and James Street in the City’s Hollow section during an event on Thursday, December 19 at 2 p.m.
The development, called New Hollow Homes, consists of one single-family house and three two-family homes at the corner of Harral Avenue and James Street. Each two-family has one, three-bedroom, 1.5-bath townhouse unit and one, two-bedroom townhouse with 2.5 baths. The single family home is a three-bedroom, one-bath ranch-style home. New Hollow Homes is the first new construction homeownership project to be undertaken in the City utilizing federal Neighborhood Stabilization Prorgram-3 (NSP-3) funds. Eaton has developed more than 100 units of affordable housing units in Bridgeport. Construction financing is provided by Entertainment Financial and will be marketed by Tri-State Realty of Bridgeport, and feature low down-payments for qualified buyers with attractive terms.
“Our continued focus on increasing the number of affordable housing options has helped to stabilize and improve neighborhoods and grow Bridgeport’s population,” said Mayor Finch. “I commend Steve Eaton for his dedication to this project and look forward to welcoming the first new residents to the New Hollow Homes.”
How much???
Great question, Ron. How much for the three different housing options is the market price? How much did the developer get in tax breaks, credits or funds? How much in continuing funds, if any, are these costing? How much will they pay in taxes this year, next year, and into the future?
This is the type of detail, Lennie, that would be nice to request of Mayor Finch in his “celebratory pronouncements” provided by his public-relations person. When the info is not provided, it makes room for good basic questions one would ask when you are being asked to put your money on the line when making an investment. Current taxpayers have their money on the line. We are looking for ‘companions’ putting real money on the line in terms of residence values, paying full taxes on assessed values and ready to become informed on where their tax dollars are spent ACTUALLY, in those cases where the BUDGETED amount is in excess of appropriations after 5, 8, and 11 months. The money gets spent because the ‘line item surpluses’ are drawn down, but not reported to you because June is only a DRAFT report. And the external audit provides no line item detail like the monthly reports. What does the Charter say about budget transfers? Has the City been living up to the Charter?
Mr. Eaton is probably a very nice fellow. And he probably supplies much more timely, accurate, and comprehensive financial data to his investors or backers, as well as to government entities providing assistance, than the Mayor supplies to Bridgeport taxpayers! How long will this continue? Time will tell.
How long did it take them to spend this Neighborhood Stabilization money. Six years?
Finch must be seriously concerned about re-election if he is spending the bulk of his time raising campaign funds and spending taxpayer funds to trumpet his non-triumphs. Hope all the hype helps him sleep at night …
*** Overstated, Overpriced, Overtaxed urban neighborhood “low value property real-estate” per the revalue evaluation ’cause it’s in the “ghetto!” *** FOR SALE SOON! ***