5/6/13 - A new grant program could help provide some funding to downtown building owners to rehabilitate apartments in the City of Howell. The City has had several downtown building owners express an interest in re-creating and/or improving upper floor residential spaces. A rental rehabilitation program through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority offers grant funds to help offset the costs incurred for those types of projects. It offers a number of community development grants to assist municipalities with implementing local initiatives to improve the quality and diversity of housing stock. The program provides a zero-percent interest, five-year forgivable loan to property owners who meet certain terms and conditions but Howell City Manager Shea Charles tells WHMI a portion of the apartments must be dedicated to low-to-moderate income tenants. Given limited staff resources, the City will be using a third party administrator to run the program and Council authorized issuing a request for proposals at last nightâs meeting. There would be no cost incurred by the City since the administrator would be paid through the grant funds. After staff reviews the requests, it will make a recommendation to the City Council for approval. The City will also need to approve local program guidelines and hold a public hearing before submitting grant documents and eventually proceed with promoting the resource to eligible building owners. (JM)
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