BEDFORD –The City of Bedford held a public hearing about their intent to apply for funding from the Owner Occupied Rehabilitation Program Grant through OCRA, which will provide grants to homeowners for home repairs.
This project aims to assist 15-20 homes in Bedford city limits, this grant will be used to assist in specific areas of need for each home selected for the project, up to $15,000, at no cost to the homeowners. A total of $250,000 could be awarded to use for the project.
Areas that will be addressed in the project include:
- Roofing
- HVAC replacement
- Lighting and Electrical upgrades
- Water heater replacement
- ADA accessibility up to the threshold of the home
Applications must be submitted no later than Friday, October 28th, 2022 in order to include your home in the selection process. Homes will be chosen through a scoring system, and will choose which homes need to be taken care of first due to highest need of repairs.
The scoring system gives points to each household, which aims to prioritize elderly homeowners and disabled homeowners above others. The system includes:
- 2 points for Elderly Household
- 2 point for Disabled Household
- 2 points for a Female head of Household
- 3 points for 50-60 percent Area Median Income (AMI)
- 4 points for 40-50 percent AMI
- 5 points for 30-40 percent AMI
- 6 points for less than 30 percent AMI
This point system will be totaled per home requesting repairs, to get the waiting list to a healthy 15 homes, before sending an inspector over to review the repairs needed, and to determine how much money to spend on each home. The $15,000 limit can not be surpassed. Any homes that go over the limit will need to reassess their requests to fit in the limit amount. If enough homes use less than the $15,000 limit, additional homes could be added to stretch the total to 20 if possible.
Qualification for homeowners depends on specific categories in order to apply, including:
- Must live within city limits of Bedford
- Must be a single-family, owner occupied home
- Home must be insured
- Home must be on a permanent foundation
- You must own your home or have a current mortgage. NO contract sales or rentals
- Must not be in the flood plain
- and, you must meet the following income guidelines:
| Number of people in the household | Your gross income must be below: |
| 1 | $41,750 |
| 2 | $47,700 |
| 3 | $53,650 |
| 4 | $59,600 |
| 5 | $64,400 |
| 6 | $69,150 |
| 7 | $73,950 |
Applications can be found at City Hall at 1102 16th Street. Applications can be turned in to Debbi Andry at City Hall by the October 28th deadline. For additional information about the project, contact Mike Bechert at (812) 350-0220. Those who may need assistance in filling out the application can contact City Hall at (812) 279-6555, or Mike Bechert.
