Mahoning County will receive $1 million in state funding while Trumbull County will get $1.4 million for housing improvement work.

Mahoning’s funding is to rehabilitate 10 owner-occupied houses and repair 14 homes in Campbell and Struthers.

Trumbull’s funding is to rehabilitate four owner-occupied houses and repair four more in the county. Also, Niles, Cortland, Girard and Hubbard are receiving $1.15 million to rehabilitate nine owner-occupied houses and repair 15 homes.

All of the grants include a fair housing component.

The funding was announced Tuesday as part of a $22.4 million award statewide by the Ohio Department of Development through its Community Housing Impact and Preservation program.

The program is designed to support home renovations, repairs, rental assistance and other initiatives to improve access to safe and stable housing.

The CHIP program is expected to improve about 25 homes in Mahoning County in the next two years.

The Ohio Department of Development recently announced that it was distributing $22.4 million to 27 communities in the newest round of funding, known as CHIP, including $1 million for parts of Mahoning County outside of Youngstown, which gets its own CHIP funding.

The program implies access to housing and provides homeownership and rental assistance for low- and moderate-income families.

Phil Puryear, head of the Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control programs in Mahoning County, said he is scheduling a short meeting with Struthers City Council soon to alert them to the steps that will take place in the coming weeks to open up the application process to the public.

Campbell and Struthers partner with Mahoning County to carry out the program, which increases the amount of funding the county receives, Puryear said. He will hold similar meetings with Campbell. And meetings with the public will take place sometime after that. The dates for those meetings are still being scheduled, Puryear said.

Catherine Cercone Miller, Struthers mayor, said the unique thing about the program is the intense interest shown in the previous rounds of the program, which is distributed on a first-come-first-served basis.

What that means is that homeowners who want to participate line up at Struthers City Hall on the day the applications are due to be among the first people so that their applications can be considered.

“I know last time for the application process, we had people lining up at 6 a.m. here at city hall. Normally from Struthers they will take the first 10 applications and see where they can make it work. But normally we have well over 25 or 30 applicants for this program,” she said.

Puryear said the $1 million in funding breakdown is $300,000 to projects in Campbell, $300,000 to projects in Struthers and $400,000 to projects elsewhere in the county outside of Youngstown.

TWO TYPES

The funding is divided into two categories: housing repairs and housing rehab. About 20 homes will get repairs, and about 10 homes will get rehab.

The home repair program is aimed at major systems, such as the heating, plumbing and electrical, Puryear said.

“What we do is we go in and look at the entirety of the project and do as many things as we can to improve the living environment in each project,” he said.

Because Puryear’s office handles other types of funds, they try to “maximize” the project with funds from other types of grants. “So say if they have a child under age 6, then we’ll enroll them in another grant program to maximize the impact of (the program) with the least amount of disruption to their daily lives,” Puryear said of the homeowners.

He said the repair program is focused on things that keep a home safe from things like moisture and deterioration and protect the health and welfare of the occupants. Upgrades to the electrical system are crucial to preventing fires.

Examples of ways an electrical system can be upgraded are providing a dedicated circuit for appliances such as microwaves, stoves and dishwashers and “ground-fault protected outlets on countertops within so many feet of water and bathrooms.”

The rehab program is “aimed at doing larger projects” that have a lead-based paint requirement. And the state has rehab requirements it sets within the Ohio Department of Development — electrical standards, plumbing standards — the project has to meet, he said.

Examples of rehab projects are roofs, siding, porch repair, limited foundation repair, “anything to bring that home to a better living environment, replace some cracked sidewalks, windows, anything that is identified in a lead-based paint-risk assessment, which has to be done for the rehabs,” he said.

Such upgrades can save lives and protect children when it involves assessments for lead-based paint, he said. Lead-based paint has been the focus of the Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control department since 1997, Puryear said.

The CHIP program has been in existence since 2013, and the CHIP program partnership with Campbell and Struthers has been going since 2019.

Miller said the CHIP program is “very beneficial because it helps some residents who may not be able to afford things like windows or roofs or siding or doors or things like that. It kind of helps them get ahead on things.”

Miller said at the start of each CHIP grant cycle, Puryear “comes and gives a speech about when the applications will be available at city hall, what the process is going to look like,” she said.

She said a list is kept at City Hall with the names of the people who have called throughout the year to ask about the program, and those people are contacted to let them know the date of the meeting with Puryear.

“People call City Hall year round asking when the CHIP Program is going to be available,” she said. “We try to keep them informed because this program helps a lot of people. You wouldn’t believe what our allotment does for our city residents. We get a lot of use out of it.”

She said there is no specific part of the city that gets approved for the funds. “It’s throughout,” she said.

Campbell Mayor Bryan Tedesco, who has been mayor three years, said the program “helps out people who are in need, who don’t have the funds to fix their house up. It takes a lot of the blight away from the houses. They might need front steps, they might need siding. They might need a new roof.”

He said his understanding is that three to four houses in Campbell are likely to get “complete rebuilds” in this funding cycle. And other houses will get lesser items such as a furnace, windows, front door, a new roof. “It helps a lot of people. It’s a very good program. I’m blessed we have this in Campbell because there are people who really do need this.”

COMMISSIONERS

Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti called CHIP a “great” program that runs on a two-year cycle. The funding originates with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is passed down through the Ohio Department of Development.

“Our lead abatement agency and CHIP program have always submitted some of the best grants in the country,” he said of Puryear’s office.

“We brought in over $8 million in HUD money for lead abatement and home rehabilitation. This is bringing houses up to code — owner-occupied rehab for the homes — because to do the abatement, the home has to be brought up to code.

“This money will do that, stabilize this housing. We do it in Struthers and Campbell but also all over Mahoning County,” he said. “We spread it around.”

He added, “People can’t afford today to bring houses up to code, so that’s what we do.”