Homeowners in Hocking, Athens and Perry counties who need an essential repair they cannot afford may soon have a new source of help. Hocking Athens Perry Community Action will receive $300,000 to provide essential home repairs and handicapped accessibility modifications, State Rep. Kevin Ritter (R-Marietta) announced in a release from the Ohio House of Representatives.
The money comes through the Ohio Department of Development, which recently announced $6.8 million in grants to help improve housing and provide down payment assistance for nearly 1,200 low- and moderate-income Ohioans across the state, according to Ritter’s release. The Hocking Athens Perry award is the southeast Ohio share of that statewide round.
Eligibility is tightly targeted. The $300,000 will serve homeowners in the three counties served by Hocking Athens Perry Community Action who are at or below 50 percent of area median income, according to the release. That threshold is meant to reach households for whom a failed furnace or a leaking roof is not an inconvenience but a risk of losing the home altogether.
The kinds of work the program covers are the basics that keep a house safe and livable. With these grants, nonprofits can contract with local qualified construction companies to complete essential repairs such as heating systems, water heaters, plumbing systems, severely deteriorated roofs, walls, windows and doors, and hazardous electrical systems, the release said.
Accessibility work is explicitly part of the award. Handicapped accessibility modifications — the ramps, bathroom changes and door widening that let a resident age in place or return home after an injury — are named alongside the repair work in Ritter’s announcement, not treated as an afterthought.
“This funding provides an opportunity to help more families when they need an essential repair or an accessibility update completed in their home,” Ritter said in the Ohio House release. “It’s great to see resources allocated specifically for Southeast Ohio so work can be done in the community to ensure safe housing and a better quality of life for residents.” Ritter’s quote is taken from the Ohio House of Representatives release.
The funding source is the Housing Assistance Grant Program, which uses Ohio Housing Trust Fund dollars to help nonprofit organizations promote more affordable housing opportunities and improve housing conditions, according to the release. Beyond repairs, the program also supports renovations for handicap accessibility, limited down payment assistance and homebuyer education.
For Perry County, the announcement lands in a busy civic week. NewsForce247 reported earlier today that Perry County voters are in their final early-voting days in New Lexington before the Nov. 3 election. Housing stability and local elections are connected in a plain way: families who can stay safely in their homes are families who stay rooted in the same school districts, townships and communities they vote in.
In Athens County, the grant is a rare piece of unambiguously good news in a difficult week, which also included NewsForce247’s coverage of an Athens County case in which parents were indicted after an infant’s death. Repair and accessibility money will not change that story, but it is the kind of quiet, practical help that reaches households before a crisis makes headlines.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the award is $300,000, the recipient is Hocking Athens Perry Community Action, the service area is Hocking, Athens and Perry counties, and eligibility is capped at 50 percent of area median income, all according to the Ohio House release and the Department of Development announcement it summarizes. What we’re still waiting on: Hocking Athens Perry Community Action has not yet published in these sources how and when households can apply, how homes will be prioritized, or how many homes the $300,000 is expected to serve.
The local-contractor piece matters for the regional economy as well. Because nonprofits contract with local qualified construction companies to do the work, according to the release, a share of the $300,000 circulates as wages and materials purchases in the same three counties where the repairs happen.
What happens next: homeowners in Hocking, Athens and Perry counties who believe they qualify should watch for application guidance from Hocking Athens Perry Community Action and be ready to document income and the repair needed. No application deadline was given in the release, and NewsForce247 will update this story when the agency publishes its intake details.
Photo: Ed!, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia Commons