By Tara Brandl
More than 30 Tracy community members gathered last Thursday evening for the kick-off of the Small Cities Development Program.
The program is run through the United Community Action Partnership. The Tracy SCDP award includes $579,600 to be used toward 21 single-family homes in the target area. According to Jeff Buesing, housing rehab coordinator with UCAP, the average SCDP grant is $24,000. This is an 80/20 program, in which the homeowner must pay 20% of the cost and the loan is the other 80%.
“Depending on how things go, we will probably do more than 21 homes,” Buesing said. “That’s our goal, to do 21 homes.”
The SCDP grant area is split into two target areas. Target area A is from Craig Avenue to South Street and 2nd Street through 10th Street. Target Area B includes Center Street through 2nd St. E, and properties on E Morgan Street to E Hollett Street. Target Area B will not open until Aug. 1, 2020.
To qualify for the funds for the SCDP a resident must be living within the target area of the grant and it must be the principle place of residence (at least six months of the year). In addition, you must be an eligible homeowner.
Trusts and life estates as well as reverse mortgages are not eligible for the program. Contract for deed programs may or may not qualify. To qualify, the owner of the deed must qualify for the program.
“This loan is a 10-year forgivable loan,” Lleni Gutierrez with UCAP explained. “Each year residing in the property, it forgives ten percent of the loan. After ten years it is fully forgiven. But when it is a Contract For Deed ownership, that doesn’t stand, it is the ten years or nothing. You have to reside in the property for the full ten years before it is forgiven.”
In addition to the ownership requirements, to qualify for the SCDP property owners must be current on real estate taxes, mortgage and utilities. They must also have property insurance in place, and fall under the SCDP income guidelines. And previous liens from past SCDP grants must be satisfied and no maximum limit on other existing liens.
Those in attendance Thursday evening were provided with the application which breaks down into three parts: the program application and required forms, the property information and income information.
Funds for the SCDP are committed on a first come, first serve basis. Priority is given for the first 60 days to applicants that filled out a survey prior to the grant being submitted. Applicants that did not complete a survey are still accepted, but are held until the 60 day period is up. Applications that are complete with all requested information are processed first.
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.