Qualified Oregon residents should apply to CHIP program

        Oregon City Council on Monday approved a Community Housing Impact and Preservation (CHIP) partnership agreement between Lucas County, the City of Oregon, and the City of Maumee. This allows Oregon to file a combined application to address local housing needs.
        “About six years ago, we started working together with the county on doing our CHIP program,” said City Administrator Mike Beazley. “It saves us on administrative expenses and time. It also makes more dollars available through the program. We are looking at some things to make sure Oregon residents know about some of the opportunities for programming that are available. The City of Maumee now does it the same way we do and joins in through the county program to make dollars available.”
        The city has successfully partnered with these entities since 2015 in applying to the Ohio Development Services Agency, Office of Community Development (OCD) for Community Housing Impact and Preservation Program (CHIP) funding. OCD encourages eligible communities to request funds as partners in one application. During these previous successful partnerships, Lucas County, with assistance from the Great Lakes Community Action Partnership (GLCAP), has administered these programs.
       
Home repairs
        The county wanted to continue the partnership to provide housing assistance to residents that meet the program’s  qualifications. The county would continue to act as grantee and administer the program, Darlynn Huntermark, finance director, said at the council meeting on Monday.
        “This program allows no cost home repairs to income-eligible homeowners,” said Huntermark. The application to apply is June 22, but we still have some money available in our previous program. We got an extension on that due to COVID-19. So we do have things on our website if people are interested in applying for money we have right now, in addition to what we’ll have with future applications.”
        Council President Tim Zale asked Huntermark how much money has the city used for the program.
        “We got $356,000 with the 2015 program. For the 2018 program, we had $319,000. The 2020 program has been really hard to get people into it. We’ve only spent about $70,000. So it gets to a point where they try to get so many in Oregon, but if they can’t, they will look at Maumee or outlying areas. The more people who apply that qualify, we can get more money for Oregon. But we have to get them to apply for this,” said Huntermark.
        City Councilman Dennis Walendzak asked Huntermark what the income threshold is to be eligible for the program.
        “It depends on the household size. A household of one is $39,450 and it goes all the way up to a household of eight, which is $74,300,” she said.
        More information on the CHIP program is on the city’s website, she added.