(Spencer)– The State of Iowa is starting a new pilot program to help people whose income was affected by the pandemic — to make repairs to their homes. Kristin Westerman is a Housing Planner/Grant Administrator for Northwest Iowa Planning and Development in Spencer…
“The primary goal of the home repair pilot program is to prevent homeowner displacement by assisting with home repairs to maintain the home. Eligible homeowners must be income qualified, have home repair needs that affect the ongoing insurability of the home, and have someone in the household experiencing a financial hardship after January 1st, 2020 because of the covid-19 pandemic. Examples of that could be a reduction in income or increase in living expense due to job loss, fewer work hours, paying more for child support, illness, or being unable to work because you had to care for a family member. You also need to own the property located in Iowa and it needs to be their primary place of residence. You also need to be current on mortgage and property tax payments.”
Westerman says the funding comes from the Iowa Finance Authority. She says the application process is pretty simple…
“Head over to Iowa Finance-dot-com slash repair, and that’s going to determine the preliminary eligibility. And then you’re going to actually complete the application online and then the team over at Iowa Finance Authority is going to take a look at that application to determine eligibility. If deemed eligible, then that case is transferred over to us at Northwest Iowa Planning and Development Commission where we will work with the homeowner to find contractors to begin the work.”
That address again is iowafinance.com/repair. She says the program just started this year. Westerman says there are several different types of assistance available…
“It is up to a $35,000 grant, so that is money that does not need to be paid back, which is great. some of the types of assistance would be like the building envelope, so we’re talking about exterior doors, window replacements, siding, roofing, gutters. We can do electrical and plumbing systems, foundation repair, septic systems, we can work with HVAC repair, lead hazard reduction, mold remediation, radon mitigation, things like that.”
The deadline to apply is 4:30 pm March 31st.
(Courtesy Community First Broadcasting station KIWA in Sheldon)
