BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CENTRAL FALLS — With the national economy seemingly in a free-fall and the city finances increasingly tight, city officials are trying what at a glance may appear to be an unlikely form of economic stimulus: buying foreclosed houses.

At its meeting Monday night, the council — minus Councilman Patrick Szlashta, who was absent that night —voted to approve resolutions authorizing the city to purchase two pieces of property. According to city records, one is a pair of homes located at 82 Lincoln Avenue- apparently three-family and one-family units, while the other is a home located at 17-17 ½ Fletcher Street.
According to the text of the resolutions passed, the Fletcher Street property can be purchased by the city for $45,000, while the Lincoln Avenue property can be had for $54,900. Mayor Charles Moreau, however, said that taxpayers needn’t worry about the effect of this purchase on the city’s balance sheet, as it is being paid for with federal funds, in the form of Community Development Block Grants (CDBG’s) awarded to the city. He said he had been looking forward to undertaking this project — which he calls the Neighborhood Revitalization and Density Reduction Project — for some time.
“I’ve been asking for money for years for this,” Moreau said. “And we continue to ask for money. It just makes sense all around.”
The resolutions indicated that the city intended to demolish the houses on the properties once they are purchased, allowing the land to be used “for future development,” which could take the form of “a single family or duplex home.”
The hope, Moreau said, is to use these purchases as an opportunity to decrease the number of triple-decker houses in the city, thus reducing the number of people residing in Central Falls, which is identified on the city’s official Web site as “the Smallest most densely populated City, not only in Rhode Island, but in the Nation.”
“It’s less everything,” the mayor said. “It’s less traffic. It’s less cost to the police department and less (cost) to the school system.”
In bygone days, the mayor said, triple-decker homes like those found throughout the city would be occupied by a single family, with owners often renting out units or otherwise sharing space with parents, children or other relatives.
Nowadays, he said, property owners often rent out units to strangers, which does not always result in a positive experience.
“It’s very difficult to find good tenants nowadays,” he said.
Moreau said he also hopes for the new units to have their own parking areas, eliminating the need for on-street parking and thus reducing clutter and traffic problems in the city’s residential neighborhoods. With this in mind, he noted, the city had already purchased and demolished one vacant home that had abutted the Ralph J. Holden Community Center, with the newly created space to be used as a parking area for the center. He noted that city officials were also hoping to purchase another building in the area for possible use by Channel One, which operates out of the community center.
“When we took over the building, there were thirty people using it,” Moreau said. “Now there are thousands of members. The goal is to make that place self-sustaining. It’s a great facility. It’s something I’m very proud of.”
The mayor said he hoped to get businesses and individuals involved in the city’s effort to purchase foreclosed properties and re-build them as attractive single-family units. He said that city workers would likely also volunteer their time to help make the project happen.
The council’s authorization of the Fletcher Street property, however, may first have to be re-voted by the council, according to City Clerk Marie Twohey. On the City Council’s agenda for Monday night’s meeting, the property had been identified as 17-17 ½ Lincoln Avenue, an address that does not appear to exist in city records. Twohey noted that 17-17 ½ Fletcher Street was the correct address.
According to city records, the property located at 82 Lincoln Avenue was sold for $212,040.00 in April of 2008, having previously sold for $275,000.00 in August of 2004. The records indicated that the building had an appraised value of $235,200.00, while the land was valued at $60,000.00.
The Fletcher Street property, meanwhile, was indicated as having sold for $130,000.00 in August of 2008 and $210,000.00 in October of 2003. The values of the house and land in 2009 were listed as $245,000.00 and $60,000.00, respectively.