City to spend $8M in ARP funds for housing
YOUNGSTOWN — City council agreed to use $8 million of its American Rescue Plan funds to develop a plan to build new houses and rehabilitate existing structures.
Council voted 7-0 Wednesday in support of the funding. Two members — Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, and Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward — said they want the city to spend more ARP money on this proposal.
Beverly Hosey, the city’s community development agency director, said work will be done to determine what type of affordable housing will be developed and where it would be built.
The strategy is based upon development-ready parcels and land owned by the city of Youngstown, the city land bank, the Mahoning County Land Bank and the Youngstown City School District, Hosey said.
Hosey said studies and community outreach will be done to determine what percentage would be new housing and what would be improvements to the city’s existing housing stock.
“We’ll do an evaluation of the entire city,” she said. “We’ll talk with neighborhood associations and council people to see what will be done and see what type of land is available.”
Hosey said she didn’t know how long the process would take or how many houses would be built and improved.
“We’ll develop a strategic plan,” she said.
Under federal guidelines, ARP money must be fully expended by the end of 2026.
Hosey said the effort will be finished by the federal deadline.
The $8 million allocation is nearly 10% of the $82,775,370 Youngstown received in ARP funding.
Turner criticized the time it took to get the proposal in front of council as the city received half of the ARP funding in May 2021 and the rest a year later.
She suggested $15 million to $20 million, saying the proposal is “great, but we are extremely behind the curve in prioritizing this.”
Oliver said $8 million is a good start.
The work will be handled through the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning Valley, Oliver said.
“This is a long time coming,” he said.
OTHER ARP PROJECTS
Council agreed Wednesday to permit the board of control to enter into professional services agreements for up to $800,000 in ARP funding with “multiple qualified consultants to provide design service for the 2024 city parks rehab and improvement project,” according to an ordinance.
Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works, said of the $800,000, “I’ll be honest with you. This is a shot in the dark. This is a stab at an estimate. Get them started and we will negotiate in good faith with all of the professional services vendors that we contract with as we always do.”
The design consultants hired will be selected based on resumes and qualifications, Shasho said.
At its Oct. 18 meeting, council approved spending up to $37,500 for design work for the rehabilitation of Falls Park on Falls Avenue in the 1st Ward and $43,500 for the same type of work for Lynn Park on Lynn Road in the 7th Ward.
At that meeting, city officials said a similar effort for the other parks in the city would be considered shortly.
Council set aside $10.5 million in ARP dollars last year for park improvements, but to date has spent very little of it.
Council also voted Wednesday in favor of legislation sponsored by Oliver to spend $100,000 in ARP money for YNDC to support the Oak Hill Neighborhood Association’s home improvement and maintenance program.
The program will teach basic home maintenance to 1st Ward residents through 10 workshops with two to three projects done on a monthly basis to improve the quality and safety of owner-occupied houses in the ward.
Council in April 2022 gave each of its seven members $2 million in ARP funds to use for ward-specific projects. The $100,000 is coming from Oliver’s $2 million allocation.