Approval given for housing assistance grant

RUMFORD -- Following a public hearing Thursday, the Board of Selectmen gave approval for a second grant to restore dilapidated housing, this time for $300,000.

The Housing Assistance Grant Program provides funding to address housing problems of low and moderate income persons.

The money will be awarded through the Community Development Block Development Grant program. The Maine Dept. of Economic and Community Development will be meeting with town officials over the next few weeks to finalize the details.

Prior to vote to approve it, Donna Thomas of Roxbury, who owns property in Rumford, told the board, "As a landlord, I'm in favor of the grant. With monies from the last one, in 2009, I was able to install new fire escapes in two of my buildings, emergency lighting, and carbon monixide and smoke detectors."

Rumford applied for the grant this spring, competing with communities throughout the state for a limited number of grants in the 2012 grant round. Earlier this year, the town identified hundreds of dollars of work needed on properties owned or inhabited by low to moderate income residents, and argued, in the application to the state, that the aging housing stock, high unemployment and other economic challenges facing the town made the grant money necessary.

Dozens of Rumford property owners have made preliminary applications to be included in the housing grant this year. According to a press release through Town Manager Carlo Puiia, they will be contacted by Community Concepts this summer to review their applications and to determine which properties are eligible to be included in the grant work.

At the public hearing, Grant Coordinator Phil Blampied said, "It's going to be a first-come, first-served basis, based on need. If somebody needed a paint job on their porch and somebody else was living in conditions that were dangerous, the dangerous conditions get done first."

Blampied said people fill out the application packet before the housing rehabilitation technician meets with the property owners and reviews their situation. Simultaneously, the grant administrator will do income certifications to ensure it's all low- to moderate-income property.

Next, Community Concepts meets with the property owner, the scope of work is decided, and the bidding process gets under way.

"It doesn't happen quickly," Blampied said.

"So there's a bidding process involved? The owner of the building just can't pick a contractor?" asked Board Chairman Greg Buccina.

"No," Blampied said. "They have to bid the work. The property owners themselves can contribute their own labor and that can be considered a part of their match, but they can't be compensated for it. They're not going to get any grant money for hiring somebody else," he said.

"All the work that's done is bid out and the contractors have to meet all federal standards," he said.

Additionally, Blampied said owners of properties with liens on them or under foreclosure by banks, cannot apply for grant funds.

Selectman Jolene Lovejoy asked if there are any guarantees that prevent a property owner from using $50,000 from the grant to rehabilitate a house, and then automatically put it on the market.

Blampied said $30,000 is the maximum they can use, unless there's an emergency.

"One of the requirements on property owners, which caused some people on the list to drop out because they don't want to do this, they have to accept a lien on their property that if they sold the property within 12 months, they would repay the cost of the project at 100 percent," Blampied said.

The federal guidelines for the CDBG program require that the money benefit low and moderate income persons, prevent and eliminate slum and blight conditions, and meet community development needs having a particular urgency, among other standards.

The first grant the town received was in 2009, which eventually resulted in nearly $500,000 of restoration work and repair. The grants are administered for the town by the non-profit Community Concepts, which is able to bring additional matching funds in the grant work.

The federal guidelines for the CDBG program require that the money benefit low and moderate income persons, prevent and eliminate slum and blight conditions, and meet community development needs having a particular urgency, among other standards.