With recently allotted funding from the Community Housing Impact and Preservation program, low- to moderate-income Bowling Green residents can now apply for financial assistance for home improvements.
The CHIP program allocates grants and loans to qualifying residents of Wood County to undertake housing-related improvements, according to the City of Bowling Green’s website.
Taylor Harrison, housing specialist assistant at Poggemeyer Design Group Inc., said, “The point of the program and the money funneling into the project helps property values go up. It helps homeowners afford small repairs to their homes. It not only benefits the homeowners, but also the value of the community as a whole.”
Distributed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the funds are allocated through the state of Ohio and managed through Poggemeyer, located in Bowling Green.
Harrison said the grant is $800,000, however only $378,000 is assigned for the rehabilitation of private, owner-occupied homes.
As of Jan. 31, Harrison reported that 45 applications had been submitted to Poggemeyer. Thirty-five projects will be selected.
Harrison said projects range from accessibility improvements for the elderly or handicapped to updating electrical and plumbing lines. However, the most common projects are roof, furnace and boiler replacements.
While Wood County was formally accepted to the grant program in November 2016, the funds were not formally usable until 2017. Although the program offers both grants and loans, Bowling Green citizens are only eligible for the declining deferred loan program. For every year participants continue to live in their home after the project is completed, 20 percent of their loan is forgiven until only 20 percent is left.
“It is in their best interest to live in their house for five years after rehabilitation,” Harrison said.
This grant comes at a time when Bowling Green is one of 14 cities in Ohio with poverty rates exceeding 30 percent, according to the 2016 Ohio Poverty Report. Other Ohio cities include:
- Athens
- Bowling Green
- Canton
- Cincinnati
- Cleveland
- Dayton
- Kent
- Lima
- Oxford
- Portsmouth
- Springfield
- Warren
- Youngstown
- Zanesville
The city website reported “Mayor Edwards requested that the Wood County Commissioners include Bowling Green under the County’s CHIP application for Planning Year 2016. This request was approved, and as a result Bowling Green will now be served under Wood County’s latest round of CHIP funding.”
This program is a new addition to Bowling Green’s existing housing improvement programs.
“We have various (Community Development Block Grant) funded housing repair programs, and we have a housing revolving loans fund,” said Tina Bradley, grants administrator for Bowling Green.
While there are other options, Harrison said CHIP is more flexible than many current housing rehabilitation programs.
“Some of the other programs can only service people with even lower incomes than our income requirements, restricting some families from applying,” Harrison said.
Some programs only provide assistance to the elderly or only residents who live outside of city limits.
As flexible as the CHIP program is, it does not provide housing assistance to Bowling Green residents who rent or are homeless.
The Salvation Army in Bowling Green has programs for homeless individuals and families.
