Newport is exploring potential partnerships for a grant program that could help residents with home repairs.
Most recently, the city heard from Habitat for Humanity at a Feb. 3 caucus meeting about potentially working together.
“One of the things that the board has discussed is the ability to maybe partner with someone for a grant program,” Newport City Manager John Hayden said. “We talked about that in respective of historic districts, putting them in the west end of town, where, historically, more people are disadvantaged financially.”
The Greater Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity covers nine counties, including Boone, Campbell and Kenton. In fiscal year 2024, which ended last summer, the local chapter did 166 repairs and helped 325 families. The Director of Operations at Habitat for Humanity, Megan Golike, said they hope to do around 200 repairs this year (the fiscal year ends in June.)
Newport’s west end has the newly constituted Buena Vista Historic District. Historic districts typically have guidelines that must be followed when making façade repairs within them. This can be more costly than repairs in non-historic districts.
Habitat for Humanity does a ‘Critical Home Repair’ program.
“Our Critical Home Repair program-we believe that everyone deserves to have a safe, decent and affordable place to live, and if you own a home or try to buy a home or preserve your home, we all know how expensive that can be these days; especially living in an historic neighborhood or area where it is very expensive to rehab or repair your home when you’re just trying to pay your mortgage,” Golike said.
All Habitat for Humanity programs require applicants to be 60 or older or members of a military-connected household. Golike said their programs have that age requirement so that they don’t have a five-year waiting list.
The Veteran Repair Program for military-connected families serves veterans, active military families, surviving spouses of veterans and veteran caregivers.
Golike said the most common grant uses are mobility, accessibility and safety modifications. These include grab bars, tub-to-shower conversions, wheelchair ramps and widened doors. For home repairs and maintenance, the most common are roof repairs, fixing broken windows, repairing water leaks, AC repairs and code violations.
The organization does not do cosmetic renovations.
To be qualified for a Habitat for Humanity grant program, the home must be owner-occupied and single-family to be considered. The applicant must be current on all property taxes and mortgages and have homeowner’s insurance. The home must be in livable condition or will be upon repair. The complete list of qualifications can be found here.
There are also maximum monthly income requirements for various household sizes. A household of one can have a maximum monthly income of $4,892. A household of two can have a maximum monthly income of $5,592. A household of three can have a maximum monthly income of $6,292, and so on. The full list of income guidelines can be found here.
The repairs are done at no cost to the homeowner.
“The reputation of habitat is incredible throughout the world, and the work that you do is well known, and figuring out a way to offer these services to our community is something I think we’re all in support of,” Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli Jr. said.
Golike said the organization partners with different jurisdictions and communities to help families with things like code violations. An example of a partnership is with Clermont County in Ohio.
“With Clermont, we’ve partnered strictly with the county, and we take applications, we do outreach, and we are working directly with the state versus with Hamilton,” Golike said. “So, what’s nice about this tailoring is you can kind of do what works best for your area.”
Golike said the city could potentially have more than one program. They could do one for historic districts and one city-wide. By tailoring a program specifically to Newport, it can be open to folks younger than the Habitat for Humanity 60-plus age requirement.
“We’ve talked some about this in the past, particularly about some parts of the community that are local historic districts and struggling or perceiving that they may have problems and being able to do facade work,” Newport Vice Mayor Julie Smith-Morrow said.
Golike said some rules must remain, such as Habitat for Humanity not working on rental properties. She also said that the municipality they work with typically matches the funds put up by Habitat for Humanity and commits to doing up to a certain number of houses.
“It’s good to have that kind of scope of what we do and do not want to do because if you get into these homes, we could spend lots of money in them,” Golike said.
Habitat for Humanity also offers a homeownership program. The application period for this program is currently closed. The Habitat for Humanity website encourages folks to check back on the 10th of each month to see if they are resuming applications.
Applicants must demonstrate a need for housing, the ability to pay back an affordable mortgage (payments will not exceed 30% of income and include taxes and insurance), and a willingness to partner with the organization in building and buying their home.
To apply to the various Habitat for Humanity programs, can click here, call 513-621-4147 ext. 8, or email repair@habitatcincinnati.org to request an application be mailed to you.
