SHARON City offers grants to get rid of lead-based paint in homes

Changes in federal lead-based paint safety regulations forced the city to alter its program.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- The city is offering grants of up to $10,000 for lead-based paint control to entice low- and moderate-income homeowners to participate in its housing rehabilitation program.
The city made major cutbacks in its housing rehab program a year ago when new federal lead-based paint control regulations went into effect.
Sharon had been doing rehabilitation projects averaging about $15,000 each, using federal Community Development Block Grant funds, but the new federal rules said any housing rehab project costing more than $5,000 must include lead-based paint abatement, if such paint is present in the house.
Rosette C. Fisher, executive director of Sharon's Community Development Department, said that requirement could boost the cost of a rehab job by $15,000 just to deal with the paint. That would sharply reduce the number of projects the city could do each year, she said.
Cutback in program
City council decided to reduce the scope of the program to maximum projects of just $5,000, enough to provide some emergency assistance to someone needing a new furnace or a new roof.
The city's practice of bringing the entire house up to minimum building and safety code standards during a rehab project was eliminated, Fisher said.
Sharon used to give what amounted to $7,000 rehab grants. They were really a deferred loan that was forgiven at the rate of 20 percent for each year the owner stayed in the house after the rehab work was done. It was written off completely after the fifth year.
In addition, program participants could get an $8,000 no-interest loan which became a lien on their property and never had to be paid until the owner moved or the house was sold.
The program change a year ago left participants with just a $5,000 no-interest loan, which has to be paid back over a period of up to 20 years.
Interest dwindled
Faced with a permanent loan rather than a loan that would be forgiven in five years, homeowners began telling the city they weren't interested in the program, Fisher said.
In an attempt to whet public interest, the city began offering $10,000 deferred loans for lead-based paint abatement work in addition to the $5,000 rehab loan.
The paint loan would be forgiven at the rate of 20 percent a year as long as the owner lives in the house.
"It wasn't a real receptive way to go," Fisher said, noting that the public is still reluctant to participate. The program used to have a waiting list of about 20 homes but now has no waiting list, she said.
The lead-based paint abatement is a safety measure but it really doesn't show any home improvement and people don't want to incur that debt because it adds no real value to their home, she said.
That's prompted another change, she said, explaining the city will now make that $10,000 paint loan an outright grant that people don't have to worry about repaying, leaving them only with the rehab loan that still must be paid off within a 20-year period.
"I think it will help," Fisher said, noting city council approved the change in November.
"The city didn't want to drop the rehab program," she said, noting it opted to make it more attractive by reducing the potential debt to the homeowner.
People may only be able to get one $5,000 rehab grant a year but they can re-apply for additional work in later program funding years, Fisher said.
Most homes built before 1975 have lead-based paint, and nearly all of Sharon's houses were built before then, she said.