Low-income homeowners in rural Milton and Selbyville might benefit from the restructuring of a multi-million federal grant application that Sussex County officials will submit to the state before the end of this month.
After gaining unanimous approval from county council on Tuesday, county community development officials will request almost $3.2 million in grant funding for low-income families — a number that dramatically exceeds the $2 million available this year for Kent and Sussex Counties to share.
At the request of persuasive homeowners last week, officials tweaked the application to include a $50,000 request for the three housing renovation projects in the Polly Branch community outside of Selbyville and a $45,000 request to replace outdated septic systems in the Lucas development outside of Milton. A Delaware State Housing Authority board will review each application before awarding grants later this year.
“There’s a whole lot being spent in the towns,” William Lecates, the county’s director of Community Housing and Development, said last week. “We try to go to different areas in different years to see what the need is. It’s not easy. Each application is on its own merit.”
Sussex County residents received $1.16 million collectively last year — more than Kent County — and have received about $18 million in the last 10 years, according to county officials.
Most grants handed out locally, however, are used to renovate low-income homes that consistently violate housing code but whose owners do not have the money to personally pay for renovations, officials have said. Of the 206 grant requests in the 2007 application, 171 are for rehabilitations — housing renovation projects — and 35 are for assistance paying water or sewer hookup fees.
Unincorporated residents are at significant disadvantage, however, despite being included in the application because of a county waiting list that now includes more than 700 residents. It would cost about $18 million to fund all of the current unincorporated requests, according to Lecates.
While Sussex County applies for all of the grants on behalf of residents, municipalities’ requests are, in fact, separate applications that carry much smaller waiting lists. The waiting list for Frankford this year, for instance, was about five people long.
“It’s almost not fair, the way the system is set up,” Lecates said. “Our waiting list is so much longer. We try to pickup different communities each year (but) they have needs every year.”
While some praised the grant system after last week’s public hearing, Lucas development representatives, who had been waiting at least three years for assistance, expressed frustration about the process.
Sharnette Hallett, vice president of the civic association for the Lucas development, a dilapidated community just outside of Milton town limits, said sometimes it seems as if “we’re the little, lost community.” Hallett said that community residents — many elderly — need help to rehabilitate their homes or replace outdated septic systems.
“Nothing has been done,” she said. “We just keep getting lost in the paperwork.”
Lecates said Lucas development residents have received assistance in the past – and, hopefully, will this year.
Unincorporated-area requests for assistance — 90 individual applications — account for $970,000 of this year’s application. Incorporated portions of the application include 10 housing rehabilitation requests for Selbyville households totaling $180,000 and five rehabilitation requests in Frankford, totaling $80,000.
Five Frankford households collectively received $75,000 last year for housing renovations and Dagsboro low-income residents received $75,000 collectively for assistance in paying water hookup fees, according to Lecates.
Selbyville residents received $75,000 last year and have received the same or more for the last five years.