City National Bank provided a $20m revolving line of credit to the city of Riverside, Calif. to help fund the city’s effort to stabilize neighborhoods with vacant, foreclosed and abandoned homes. The credit, which nearly triples the city’s available funding for such efforts to $31.5m, allows the city to leverage federal and local dollars to acquire more homes, according to a release. The Housing Authority of the City of Riverside acquires and sells distressed properties through the Neighborhood Stabilization and Targets of Opportunity programs that provide grants to cities for the purchase, rehabilitation and sale of foreclosed or vacant properties. The available funding includes $5m from the city’s Redevelopment agency and a $6.5m grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). So far, Riverside acquired 20 residential properties with an additional 16 in the early stages of rehabilitation. Almost 4.5% of all local housing units in Riverside foreclosed between July 1, 2007 and May 13, 2009 totaling more than 4,400 properties. “This is an outstanding example of using public and private resources to address a serious public issue,” said Breck Fleming, senior vice president and manager of City National Bank’s Riverside Commercial Banking Services. Write to Jon Prior.