by Michael Monks
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THE RIVER CITY NEWS MORE COVINGTON NEWS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE
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Funding from two federal programs that have played significant roles in developing new home buyers in Covington were discussed Wednesday night at City Hall as plans are made on how to disburse the funding this year. Realtors, loan officers, non-profit directors, and homeless advocates made their cases for how to maximize the impact from Community Development Block Grant and Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program funds, both of which come from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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Funding for both programs is less this year than last. The CDBG funds for Covington's housing strategy amount to $1.4 million, down $90,000 from the previous year. The HOME money took an even more dramatic cut, totaling $244,000, 43% less than the previous year. As the City of Covington aims to boost home ownership rates, how best to use the dwindling funds was the topic at the public forum from which comments will be included in a presentation to the City Commission in April with a target date for commission approval in early May.
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| Neil Blunt speaks on behalf of the Realtors Roundtable |
Neil Blunt, of Wallace Woods, spoke on behalf of the Covington-based Realtors Roundtable, requesting a change in strategy with the funds. "We understand the challenge in 2011 to provide incentives for certain areas in Covington's Downtown and Latonia, (but) we would like to see the incentive issue change for 2012 and go back to the earlier program where it was open to most areas of the city," Blunt said. "As realtors, we have lost clients over the last year because there was a smaller amount of choice in where to live in order to gain the down payment assistance."
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The funds at issue help home buyers, particularly first-time home buyers, with down payment and closing cost assistance and other benefits like facade and infrastructure repair or renovation loans. Stephanie Adams, a loan officer from Mainstrasse who specializes in this sort of lending offered her support of expanding the program more widely and perhaps increasing incentives in designated areas.
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Center for Great Neighborhoods Executive Director Tom DiBello weighed in also. "We want housing development to be part of a community consensus (where planning has already been completed)," he said. "We don't want to burn public funds where we don't need to." DiBello added the the homebuyer guidelines should be made clearer for dealing with prospective home buyers while also increasing the financial standards for those qualifying for such loans.
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David Hastings, Executive Director of Housing Opportunities of Northern Kentucky, hopes that the down payment assistance continues. HONK uses a lease-option approach for first-time home buyers and new changes by the federal government will force the organization's clients to be prepared to buy in six months as opposed to the one to two years it currently takes. Hastings also had reservations about targeted zones for development. "When people are working toward home ownership and the target area is changed, the rug is pulled out from under them and that makes it difficult," he said.
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Rachael Winters, of Levassor Park and Executive Director of the Northern Kentucky Emergency Shelter, urged the City to consider the 60% increase in occupancy at her shelter while developing its next strategy. "I hope the plan will address the needs of homelessness and that is not home ownership," she said. "I want to plead for provisions of shelter, showers, and clothing"
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