A stalled housing project in Flint is finally moving forward.
Smith Village has been a longtime headache for Flint city leaders.
The Smith Village project started in 1998 when the federal government gave the city of Flint money to build low and moderate income homes. The plan was to rebuild a neighborhood with more than 80 new, low-to-moderate income homes.
But numerous delays and lawsuits stalled the development.
Flint Emergency Financial Manager Ed Kurtz says a deal has been reached to let yet another developer finish the first two phases of the Smith Village project.
“I really don’t know what went wrong,” says Kurtz, “I said at the meeting yesterday we’re done placing blame. We’re done pointing fingers. Now we’re only going to be about moving forward…doing what we got to do to get these people into these homes.”
25 homes sit now on unlandscaped lots. Several of the homes are still unfinished. Eleven buyers have been waiting a year to move into homes at Smith Village.
Kurtz says the new developer hopes to finish landscaping the homes, complete some outstanding sales and finish building another dozen homes on the site by the end of February.
