STRUTHERS — Ian Beniston won’t hesitate to tell you that he’s happy to have seen a red ribbon instead of red tape.

“We all need more housing, so for me, this represents the fulfillment of that goal,” said Beniston, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.’s executive director.

Beniston was referring to a new one-story, dark-gray ranch-style residence at 78 Prospect St., in the city’s Nebo neighborhood, which was the site of a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tour Thursday morning.

The residence is one of eight new homes, using four models, that the YNDC is building throughout the city of nearly 10,000.

The citywide work also includes three residences on Sexton Street and one each on Narcissa and Eighth streets, the latter of which is nearly finished, Beniston said. He added that the Sexton Street ones likely will be completed in the next month or two.

Youngstown-based Joe Koch Construction Inc. is the builder of the eight residences.

Perhaps in a symbolic manner, the red ribbon that stretched across the front porch during Thursday’s gathering was far more welcome than red tape that often can delay such projects for months or years. Construction on the Prospect Street home got underway in early April,with a few more minor tweaks needed, Beniston noted.

“It can be this simple and efficient if we all work together,” he said.

The 1,471-square-foot Prospect Street structure features three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry area, an open-concept living room, kitchen and dining room, a front porch with a ceiling fan, a detached two-car garage and plenty of closet space. Also included is a full basement in which is an egress window, the likes of which are installed to allow for quick emergency escapes and rescues in the event of a fire.

Having such safety windows in place during construction is far more cost-efficient than adding them later, Tiffany Sokol, the YNDC’s housing director, noted.

The top price for the eight homes will be $180,000 each, thanks to a grant the city was awarded from the Ohio Department of Development’s Welcome Home Ohio program, Beniston noted.

Welcome Home Ohio offers tax credits and grants to land banks and nonprofit entities to build, buy and rehabilitate affordable homes for Ohioans who are income-eligible.

Along those lines, people eligible to buy the YNDC homes have to be at or below 80% of the area’s median income level, Beniston said, adding that Huntington Bank, which has partnered with the YNDC, is providing up to $20,000 in down payment assistance toward the home purchases.

For more information, call the YNDC at 330-480-0423, or go to www.yndc.org.

Planning for such projects in a city the size of Struthers has taken place for several years, a fact that underscores the importance of the partnerships the city has developed, including with the YNDC, Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller said in her remarks Thursday.

In 2021, YNDC officials conducting an impromptu survey walked through parts of the city to better see and understand the type of housing stock that was prevalent, a move that revealed many vacant properties and much unused land, Cercone Miller recalled. Many of those property owners had died, so the city worked with the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office to acquire some of the parcels before forming a partnership between that entity as well as the Mahoning County Land Bank and YNDC, all of which planted the seeds for the new homes to be built, the mayor explained.

“This is why you run for election — to see change happen,” Cercone Miller said, adding, “When you spend years and years and years on different projects and see the endgame, that’s what makes being a public servant so worth it — when you get to see changes actually happening.”

The Struthers Land Bank acquired the vacant parcels for the new homes, and the Mahoning County Land Bank provided additional land for the projects. Another partner in the mix was the Eden Haven Housing Development Group.

“We can’t get stuff off the ground if we don’t work together,” Deb Flora, the Mahoning County Land Bank’s executive director, said, adding that more housing is needed statewide.