Appropriating $8,000 for Housing Repair Materials

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CITY of PETER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Carl Ellison Director Jon R. Hunt Deputy Director V, LaMar Wilson Assistant Director SOUTH BEND J. NEMETH, Mayor August 9, 1978 M E M O R A N D U M TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL J�� • DF�F! O • I • 3 ° i • y wb�/o 0*66 • 1440 County -City Building South Bend, Indiana 46601 219/284 -9335 FROM: CARL ELLISON, DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT &d SUBJECT: 1978 CDBG APPROPRIATION (Real Services Housing Repair) The Division of Community Development is presenting for your consider- ation a bill appropriating $8,000 to REAL Services for the purchase of housing repair materials. REAL Services presently conducts a Title XX Housing Service program which provides home repairs to older adults. Title XX is severely re- stricted, however, in that 60% of its clients must be Supplemental Security Income recipients (or Aid For Dependent Children recipients who are generally too young for REAL Services to assist). The remaining 40% of the Title XX clients are low income persons. The percentage require- ment creates serious problems because there are only 652 SSI recipients in St. Joseph County according to Social Security Administration records of November, 1977. Yet 48% of the county's older adult population - -some 18,340 individuals - -have annual incomes that fall within the $1,000 - $4,000 range. Under the proposed CD home repair program, REAL Services would provide home repairs for elderly low income families residing in CD Neighborhood Strategy Areas who are not eligible for Title XX services due to the percentage restriction. In addition to improving immediate housing conditions for recipients, we envision this repair program as a mechanism to enable more older adults to qualify for the Housing Allowance Program. The HAO records indicate that in a year's time 1,692 older adults who are income eligible are dis- qualified from the HAO Program because their homes fail to pass the housing inspection. These same older adults are unable to afford the necessary repairs and are thus prevented from participating in the program. We anticipate approximately twenty- thirty homes being repaired at an average cost of $300 -$400 for materials per unit. REAL Services Handymen, funded through Title III and Title IX of the Older Americans Act will perform the repairs.