After this year countywide grant program to renovate residential houses will not longer be available for home improvement costs.
By: William Wichert
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP In 2001, the township became the first municipality to renovate residential houses for free through a countywide grant program. After using this year’s funds, it will be the last.
Five low-income residents will collectively receive more than $90,000 through the Burlington County Community Block Grant Program to make repairs to their homes this summer, but county officials have announced that after this year the grant money will no longer be applied to home improvement costs.
The county will continue offering grants on a rotating basis with money it receives every year from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, but spending the funds on home repairs poses too many conflicts, said John Smith, coordinator of the county’s Housing and Community Development Department.
"It’s a very difficult program to administer," said Mr. Smith. "It’s just an unpredictable type of project."
Of the $1.9 million the county distributed last year, the funds going to Bordentown Township are the only ones being used for home improvement, he said. Each town is free to decide how its grant money is spent, but the decision must benefit low- and moderate-income residents, he said.
Under the grant program, if the residents stayed in town for at least five years after the home repairs were made, they did not have to pay back the grant amount, Mr. Smith said.
From the time the grant amounts are announced, each municipality is given a year to decide on a way to spend the money and then complete all the necessary work, Mr. Smith said. All the municipalities selected last year must complete their jobs by September, he said.
Bordentown City and Florence Township each received $74,000 and chose to install curb cuts for handicapped residents, Mr. Smith said. Fieldsboro, which received that same amount, is going to make improvements to some of the town’s streets, he said.
While Mr. Smith said Bordentown Township has performed very well so far by following the yearlong schedule, previous cases in other municipalities have shown that home improvement can lend itself to work delays and increased costs.
Rather than directly give the township money to build curb cuts, the county is forced to play a hands-on role in the home improvement process, meeting with contractors and reviewing the completed work, Mr. Smith said.
"We have to do our inspections. We do the project specifications. We review the estimates," said Mr. Smith. "There are so many unknowns, it’s difficult to get the project finished in a year."
If the work goes past the September deadline, the county covers the extra costs, but that amount is then deducted from the next grant the municipality receives, he said.
Although residents can no longer fix their houses with the grant money, Mr. Smith stressed that they can still apply to the county’s interest-free loan program for low-income homeowners.
To qualify for this program, the total income for a single-person household must be no more than $38,550 per year, he said. The total income for an eight-person household must be $72,650 or less per year, he said.
The only difference between the county’s loan program and the Community Block Grant Program is that residents have to repay the county’s loan.
Angel Sauro, the township’s public information officer, said she has already told all the residents interested in the grant program about the county’s homeowner loans, but that it is unfortunate that the repairs will no longer be free.
"The general public would say, ‘What’s gonna happen? You get nothing for nothing?’" said Ms. Sauro, who worked with the selected residents through the application process. "There is no catch. It’s an exceptional program. I’m really sorry to see it go."
Ms. Sauro said this year’s grant funds will go toward a range of repairs, from painting the outside of a house to fixing broken windows.
When the township began to use the grant money for home improvement purposes three years ago, its goal was to remove any housing code violations and make repairs so that the residents do not consider moving away, she said.
"People don’t always have the money. Some of them went through hard times," Ms. Sauro said. "You help one person, it’s a great thing. You help many people, it’s wonderful."