Parkersburg city councilor JR Carpenter, left, speaks during a discussion about the Affordable Housing Leverage Fund at Tuesday’s council meeting at the city building. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
PARKERSBURG – Following debate over a proposed program to provide loans to homeowners to repair rental properties, Parkersburg city council this week approved the Parkersburg / Wood County HOME Consortium 2021-2022 budget.
A resolution approving spending plans for the $ 583,383 in federal funds to provide affordable housing to low- and moderate-income people, as well as the community development block grant of $ 897,015, was on the agenda of Tuesday’s board meeting.
Council voted 7-1, with opposition from Councilor Sharon Kuhl, to split it into separate points. The budget of the CDBG went 8-0, the municipal councilor Jessica Cottrille being absent.
At the meeting and a public budget hearing earlier in the evening, City Councilor JR Carpenter asked several questions about the Affordable Housing Leverage Fund, which would provide low- or no-interest loans to homeowners. rental housing to rehabilitate their properties. The plan allocates $ 325,911 to the program.
According to a document provided by development director Ryan Barber, the total grant provided by the loan cannot exceed 50 percent of eligible rehabilitation expense costs, or $ 15,000 per unit. The minimum spend per unit is $ 10,000 and luxury expenses are not eligible.
“The person who will receive the compensation will be the owner or the owner” said Charpentier. “I think we should be looking to help people become homeowners. “
He suggested the city consider providing assistance to people with land contracts who make monthly payments towards the eventual purchase of the house.
Mayor Tom Joyce said he did not believe the US Department of Housing and Urban Development would provide funds for land contracts. Barber described it as a kind of gray area since the occupant is a tenant but also expects him to maintain the property in the same way as a landlord.
Carpenter asked why the program is limited to properties of two to 11 units, noting that it would not apply to single-family rentals or larger apartments.
At the public hearing, Barber said if the program were open to more than 11 units, it would trigger expanded environmental review requirements that are more complex and time-consuming. This would also fall under the salary mandates in force.
Joyce and Barber noted that the city has several programs to support single-family home ownership. The proposed budget does not include additional funding for these initiatives beyond $ 86,000 for Habitat for Humanity of the Mid-Ohio Valley. Barber said these programs have funds left over from previous years.
“Almost all of our HOME consortium budget has gone to homeowners. “ said Board Chairman Zach Stanley. “For us, applying 100 percent of the funds to 60 percent (of residents) for me is wrong.”
Joyce said he believed the program could stop the problems before they reached the point of a 17th Street apartment complex that had to be evacuated and declared uninhabitable two years ago after the discovery a sewer leak.
“There are properties that would be eligible that we could help and help avoid large scale evictions,” he said.
Carpenter proposed that the names of the fund applicants be published in the journal.
“I would like all requests to be made public so that we can see where our tax money is going” he said.
He went 6-2, with Kuhl and Stanley opposed.
“I really think that this vote, at the moment, was an invasion of their privacy…” Kuhl said.
After the meeting, barber and City Attorney Blaine Myers said the names of the candidates would be made public, subject to the Freedom of Information Act. But Barber said preemptively publishing the names of the candidates was not something the city had done before.
The city administers the HOME consortium, but the programs are open to residents of Wood County, Vienna, and Williamstown in addition to Parkersburg.
Evan Bevins can be contacted at [email protected].