County looking to build more scattered housing

Local News

November 18, 2009

One million dolalr grant would provide homes for those in need

By HEATHER PYLES, CJ Staff Writer The Commonwealth Journal Wed Nov 18, 2009, 08:51 PM EST

The original funds from the 2008-2009 Scattered Site Housing program may be close to being spent, but the county isn’t finished rebuilding houses just yet.

During last week’s Pulaski County Fiscal Court meeting, Kristen Lowery, with Kriss Lowery and Associates, Inc., who has assisted the county with receiving funding for the program, told the court she’d like to begin the process of applying for another $1 million grant to help assist more needy people and families.

“Since we have such a long waiting list of people needing assistance on this program we want to just go ahead and apply for another $1 million in funding so we can go ahead and do some additional homes,” Lowery said.

The county received notice in May 2008 that they had been chosen to receive a $1 million Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) in conjunction with the Governor’s Office for Local Development (GOLD) for a scattered housing project, which would allow homes in need of repairs to be rebuilt for the housing needs of low-income, elderly and disabled individuals. That grant covered costs to rebuild up to 10 homes in the county.

In October 2008, the county secured an additional $240,000 in supplemental funding, which came through the Kentucky Housing Corporation’s 2008-2009 GAP Financing Pool. Those funds went toward an additional five homes.

During last Tuesday’s meeting Lowery updated the court on the progress of the program.

Six homes have already been completed and are occupied. Lowery said another three homes have been completed and are occupied, but inspections must still be carried out. Five homes are under construction, and the construction is close to beginning on one home.

And while the grant has helped the county to meet the needs of 15 home owners, Lowery said there’s still a need for more rebuilding. To do that, the county needs to reapply for the $1 million grant, and Lowery said she thinks the county will receive that funding, as long as the majority of the funds from the last grant has been spent by January 1.

“We have to have 80 percent expended ... to be eligible to apply for funding so quickly again,” Lowery said. “I’m very confident ... that we’ll be able to meet this.”

Lowery emphasized that the program comes with very strict guidelines. The home must be livable, and must be owned by the occupants.

“You have to actively be living in it to be eligible for this program,” Lowery said.

A scattered site housing project is voluntary, and only people who have owned their home for at least half a year are able to apply for the homeowner rehabil-itation. Homeowners are found eligible for the program only if they live in low- to moderate-income homes that require rebuilding.

Lowery said the next program, should the county receive the funds, will have stricter guidelines about how many homes can be on a lot. She said multiple homes on one lot had proved “problematic” in the past, so she said the next program will require that only one home is on a lot.

During last Tuesday’s meeting, Lowery asked that the court pass several resolutions regarding the program, including one in which the court approves the program guidelines and one in which the court acknowledges a “conflict of interest” process.

“They’d had some problems in other communities, not any of my projects, where they find out they would be assisting someone and it turned out to be the daughter of the mayor or something like that ...,” Lowery said.

Lowery told the magistrates and Pulaski County Judge-executive Barty Bullock that a list of those people who have submitted applications for the program has been made available to them to ensure that no relatives of any county officials closely involved with the project will receive a new home without the proper legal procedures being carried out.

The court passed those resolutions.

In other news from the Tuesday, Nov. 10, meeting of fiscal court:

• Mark Bastin, with the Somerset-Pulaski Development Foundation, asked that the court approve advertising for bids for a small, secure communications building near the Valley Oak Technology Park on Ky. 461 that would house the park’s fiber high-speed Internet and telephone connections.

Bastin said if a building isn’t bid out to sit over the underground fiber, those lines would run through a private business’ building.

“That’s not acceptable,” Bastin said. “If that fiber goes down, then our park is not what it should be for our clients out there,”

The court approved advertising for bidding on the building.

• The court approved several additional property cleanups in the county, including Diamond Acres, lot 46, 134 Scarlet Way, 347 Mark Street, lot 46 on Saw Mill Road, and 36 Parkway Court.

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