City homeowners may be eligible for home repair help
By: DAVID MACCAR
Burlington County Times

BEVERLY - City residents who own a home in need of repair may be eligible for financial assistance through the City of Beverly Housing Rehabilitation Program.

The city is hosting an open house from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Beverly Housing Authority on Magnolia Street for homeowners interested in learning about the program.

"What's really important is these funds are available to property owners. It's a great way for them to make their house safer, in better condition and more energy-efficient. If they have code violations, we can help take care of that," said Corinne Markulin, housing production manager with Community Grants Planning and Housing LLC of East Windsor, which was hired by the city to administer the program.

The program offers zero-percent loans for between $8,000 and $16,000 to qualified applicants for major house repairs or replacements, including heating, water and sewer, roofing, windows, electric, plumbing and foundation.

"Depending on your income bracket, for some [the loan] is fully forgiven and others have to pay back 50 percent. But after a 10-year period it's fully forgiven," Markulin said. "[To qualify] the occupants have to be income eligible, and the house has to have at least one major system in need of repair or replacement."

There are income restrictions, based on Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) regulations. For example, a household of three people age 18 or older cannot exceed an annual gross income of $56,016.

Markulin said a homeowner could potentially receive up to $16,000 for the first unit and possibly $10,000 more for each additional unit of a multifamily home.

"It's a great program, especially in these economic times when it's difficult to get a home equity loan," she said.
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Since the program's inception 11 years ago, 256 households have participated, according to Markulin.

The program is being funded through regional contribution agreements (RCA) reached with Evesham, Mount Laurel, New Hanover and Springfield prior to 2004, according to city Business Administrator Barbara Shiepe.

Under previous state COAH rules, one town could pay another to accept up to 50 percent of its fair-share housing obligation. The arrangement is called a regional contribution agreement because the state was broken into three-county regions under affordable housing rules and all such transfers were done within a region.

In 2008, Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law a measure that forbids RCAs, but Beverly's agreements are too old to be affected, Shiepe said.

Wednesday's open house will include a PowerPoint presentation detailing the program, funding sources, benefits, and what it takes to qualify.

Markulin said the program also provides an inspector to oversee the work done on a home to make sure it is completed properly before a contractor is paid.

"The average person doesn't understand construction. They hire a contractor and they're not really skilled to evaluate the contractor's work, so the program has an inspector who does that for them," she said.

Program participants are provided with a list of contractors to choose from.

"The homeowner is a part of the contractor selection," Markulin said. "They're able to choose different contractors than the one that the program awards it to, and they would have to pay the difference."

July 21, 2009