Exclusive Investigation
A Home Linked To Providence Councilwoman Up For Sale
A low-income house linked to Providence Councilwoman Balbina Young will soon be up for sale.
As we reported seven months ago, young's son and daughter-in-law lived in the house in violation of low-income guidelines.
The proposed sale comes after a city agency threatened to foreclose on the property and force the mortgage holder to repay the $91,000 the city invested in the house.
We're told councilwoman Young's son Lawrence and his wife Sylvana have already moved out.
The mortgage on the house is held by Sylvana young's father Manuel Depina.
The structure was purchased from Brown University and moved through the city to a lot diagonally across the street from Councilwoman Young's home.
The cost to the city to move and rehabilitate the house was $145,000.
$25,000 of that was reimbursed by a mortgage agency...so the total cost to taxpayers was $120,000.
After the Eyewtiness News Investigative report, the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation notifed Depina that ...you have failed...to prove you live in the house as required, therefore, rihmfc will ...increase the mortgage rate more than 2 percent.
The city planning and development department then asked for income information from all the people who live in the hosue tom see if they met the low income guidelines.
The lawyer for the planning department said in a letter lawrence and Sylvana Young had failed to comply ...
And the agency threatened forcelosure proceedings and also warned Depina might have to repay the $91,450 the city paid the rehabilitate the house.
Depina's lawyer says lawrence and Sylana Young have already moved out of the house. He said he didn't know when. But they are gone. Depina still lives there, but his lawyer the house will soon be up for sale.
A spokesman for the planning department says the sale is necessary to pay off existing mortgages.
He says the agency will monitor the sale and that the property must be sold to someone who meets all the qualifications for low-income housing.
He says the house must remain a low income unit.
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