Bureaucratic confusion has stalled a Fairfax County plan to buy, revamp and sell dilapidated foreclosures that was approved and funded nearly a year ago.
Under the program, part of a broader initiative approved last summer to combat a mounting foreclosure crisis in Fairfax, the county government would have bought 10 of the most blighted homes in the hopes of eventually selling them to first-time homebuyers or nonprofits.
When then-Chairman Gerry Connolly rolled out the plan, he pitched it as a way to halt the crisis’s ripple effect on home values and to help middle-income families find affordable living space in the county.
Supervisors now say they’re angry with county staff that the plan has gone nowhere. Much of the delay is because of a mix-up where each group was waiting on the other to identify properties for purchase.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” said Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust, who worried the county has passed a window in which the program could be effective.
Sharon Bulova, who replaced Connolly this year as chairwoman, said the program should be in place by now.
Even those who questioned whether the small number of purchases could help the housing market faulted the county’s housing department for inaction. Buying 10 homes is not going to “make or break our affordable housing problem” in a county of more than 1 million people, said Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay.
“The more global issue here is our department of housing has not delivered on a promise that was made to the board and money that was approved,” he added. “I never really felt like they got the ‘sense of urgency’ part in dealing with the foreclosure crisis.”
Fairfax County had 1,566 active foreclosures in March, a number that had decreased from the months before. Housing officials say that’s the result of foreclosure moratoriums and a pickup in sales of starter homes.
The Department of Housing and Community Development recently put a bid on a Herndon home, but soon found out there were about a dozen other private bidders for the property, said John Payne, deputy director for real estate.
“The end result we were all seeking was to get the units occupied and get the units fixed up,” said Mary Stevens, also a deputy director in the housing department.
