Communities Grant Would Aid Local Homeowners

by Jonathan Weaver

A six-figure grant application will be submitted to the state Department of Community and Economic Development after the county commissioners’ sign-off last week.

County Planning and Development Assistant Director Carmen Johnson said Planning and Development staff has been preparing a grant application to be part of the countywide accessible housing program.

“Under this program, we would be able to make handicapped-accessible improvements to, we hope, 12-15 households to (keep) people with permanent physical disabilities in their homes, prevent them from being institutionalized,” Johnson said.

If received, $200,000 would be available for projects - $100,000 from the grant and $100,000 from Act 137 funds – filing fees at the County Recorder’s Office.

There is currently nearly $200,000 available in this funding stream at the Recorder’s Office – which has also been utilized in the past as a match for other grants.

“Funds would be used for very low income persons – they would get the first priority,” Johnson said. “We do have about 36 people on the waiting list right now, but if the application is funding, we would do an outreach and then have a lottery to draw the order that those applicants could possibly receive funding.

“The maximum per unit is $11,500 – sometimes that can be on a case-by-case basis. If there’s a really great need and it exceeds that amount, then we can give them a little more.”

Armstrong County residents have benefited from similar funding in the past, but that funding was exhausted June 30. There were nearly 20 households that benefited during the past three years.

A pair of certified contractors currently would perform that work, but contractors interested in working on the projects should contact the Planning and Development office.

Applications are due Friday, Oct. 14.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.