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Program pays for improvements to homes that violate housing code
Photo
Mike Daugherty, left, and Ernie Avery of Avery Painting, spruce up a home in the city’s 7th Ward under Paint Youngstown, a city program that pays for minor repairs to homes that are facing code violations.
By CHRIS COTELESSE
TheNewsOutlet.org
YOUNGSTOWN
Carmen Hall’s two-story house on Youngstown’s South Side needed repairs.
The 78-year-old retired nurse’s aide couldn’t afford to paint her house, fix her garage or repair her gutters.
The Youngstown Code Enforcement Department could have issued a $100 fine, which Hall would have had 30 days to pay or 15 days to appeal. The fine would then have risen to $500 and then $1,000 after another 30 days.
Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. initiated the first round of Paint Youngstown last month. The program provides repair work to low-income, owner-occupied houses, using local contractors.
The public-private partnership selected 31 houses to help residents avoid exterior- code violations from city government. Hall’s home was selected.
Repairs on nine houses already have been completed. The rest are scheduled to be finished by the end of June, costing about $150,000. Another leg of the project is planned to begin July 1.
“The program is beautiful. The people who work it are beautiful,” Hall said.
Repairs were completed in about five days and cost $4,580.
The program is funded by the Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The program selected houses within targeted areas that were listed to be cited for violations.
City council, the code enforcement department, YNDC and Maureen O’Neil, Youngstown’s Neighborhood Improvement coordinator, collaborated to designate neighborhoods in all seven wards for the program.
“We tried to choose areas where a minimal investment would make a substantial impact,” O’Neil said.
Dominic Marchionda, YNDC program coordinator, said the program is a five- or 10-year deferred loan. The homeowners must remain in the house for the loan period or pay back some of the costs.
“The goal is to stabilize those neighborhoods so they don’t turn into a whole block of vacancies,” Marchionda said.
The repairs are limited to painting and other minor exterior fixes, but O’Neil said even small repairs could become tangible improvements to communities.
“We hope that by showing concrete improvements we could encourage people to invest in the city,” she said.
The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU Radio and The Vindicator.