The City of Covington is making documents such as applications, guidelines, and fliers available in the Spanish language for the city’s Spanish-speaking residents. The move allows residents to more easily navigate homeowners programs.
The Homebuyer Assistance, Homeowner Repair, and Lead Abatement are all programs that have been translated, with more coming down the pipeline. The move is in response to Covington’s growing Hispanic population.
“We’ve been wanting to do this for a while,” Jeremy Wallace, Covington’s Federal Grants manager, said.
The translated documents will remove a potential barrier toward full participation in Covington’s environment, said Reid Yearwood, executive director of the Esperanza Latino Center, a nonprofit resource center on Pike Street.
“Anything that we can do to make (this community) aware of all the city’s programs, initiatives, grants, and opportunities, and let them know that they don’t have to overcome obstacles to understand them, is tremendous,” Yearwood said. “The city of Covington does such an excellent job when it comes to being inclusive and making sure that the community is welcome.”
Wallace said the translated materials demonstrate a priority of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in its fair housing plans and has been on the city’s radar for some time.
Until recently, there was no mandate to provide language translations for the documents because there was no Census evidence that the city had met either of the HUD markers, more than 5 percent of the city’s population or 1,000 people who weren’t fully fluent in English.
That changed with the 2020 Census.
“This is the first time we’ve exceeded the threshold,” Wallace said. “We exceeded the 1,000 number of people who weren’t fully fluent in English, and frankly that count is probably low. You can fairly assume that the Census probably isn’t capturing the full number of Spanish-speaking people.”
Wallace said the city started translation efforts with these particular documents for a reason.
“Our homebuyer program and home repair program are two programs that we’ll most likely have an individual come to the city for assistance who is not fully fluent in English,” Wallace said.
Wallace said the city started translation efforts with these particular documents for a reason.
“Our homebuyer program and home repair program are two programs that we’ll most likely have an individual come to the city for assistance who is not fully fluent in English,” Wallace said.
Documents are available on the city’s Federal grants/housing initiatives webpage. Hard copies will be available at Esperanza, Northern Kentucky Legal Aid, the Covington branch of the Kenton County Public Library, and other agencies and locations.
Yearwood called the effort “a good start” and said the Center will promote and explain the documents. “We have such a large network now that we know we can get these in front of a lot of eyes,” Wallace said.
Faustina Mulnik, an intern with the city’s Read Ready Covington program, translated the documents and said each piece took her a couple of hours. A Spanish major at Northern Kentucky University, Mulnik’s internship ends in May.
John Hammons, the city’s CDBG/HOME program coordinator, said the city hoped to use funds through the American Rescue Plan Act to expand its efforts.
“We’re a limited staff and it’s fortunate that we have people to help us translate to serve underserved populations,” Hammons said. “We owe it to them. It’s important to have information available in Spanish so people don’t miss out on opportunities because of a language barrier. It’s the right thing to do. It’s what we should have been doing.
