By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
A little known program is looking to help Crawford County residents with their home improvement projects.
A public meeting was held at Bucyrus City Hall Monday evening to inform residents on the Crawford County Community Housing and Impact Preservation (CHIP) program, which is administered by the Ohio Regional Development Corporation. Roughly 20 people attended the informational meeting with various concerns for their homes, from a 155-year-old former store to a house located in a floodplain.
“The city of Bucyrus, the city of Galion, the village of Crestline, Crawford County – this grant covers them all and they all work together on this,” explained Barbara Richards of Ohio Regional Development Corporation. “It does not matter where you live as long as you’re within that Crawford County border and you pay Crawford County property taxes.”
The program is to help the county improve its housing stock, Richards added.
“It is not a maintenance program – we’re not coming out to maintain your home. What we’re doing is trying to make it safe, decent, and sanitary and structurally safe,” she said.
The CHIP program is available to low- and moderate-income households through two different avenues: an owner rehabilitation project or a home repair emergency project. The owner rehabilitation program focuses on the entire home and is designed to meet the neediest of the applicants, though the program will only be able to help 16 people. A maximum of $35,000 will be spent on the home to bring it up to city and state standards. The resident will have to reimburse 15 percent of the total grant when they sell or move from the house after five years.
The home repair emergency project is a grant that focuses on just one item on the home, such as emergency repairs, handicapped accessibility, and well and septic repairs or replacements. The program is a first-come-first served basis. Richards said the CHIP program typically serves around 25 residents at roughly $5,000 per project.
Richards cautioned that the resident must own the home and show they are current on their mortgage and property taxes. She added that applying for the program is not a speedy process.
“You apply tomorrow, but you may not be worked on until next fall,” she said. “It’s worth waiting for.”
Applications for the Crawford County CHIP program will be accepted beginning today and those for the owner rehabilitation program will be accepted for the next three weeks. For more information on the county CHIP program or to obtain an application packet, contact Malinda Freeman at the Crawford County CHIP office at 419-562-6583. The local CHIP office is located on the second floor of the Crawford County Courthouse, 112 E. Mansfield St., Bucyrus.
There will be a second public meeting pertaining to the Crawford County CHIP program at 6 p.m. on Oct. 11 in council chambers of the Galion City Building.