County to submit grant requests by end of January
Sussex County officials plan to request almost $3.2 million in grant money at the end of this month from the federal government, for low-income county residents — a number that dramatically exceeds the $2 million that is available for Kent and Sussex counties to share.
Community Development Block Grants — which are administered in Delaware through the state government — help low-income residents nationwide fix homes, pay hook-up fees for water and sewer systems, and with other public projects.
Sussex County applies for the grants annually, on behalf of residents in unincorporated and incorporated areas of the county. Most unincorporated residents, though, will not be included in the application because of a hefty waiting list. Sussex County residents received $1.16 million collectively last year and about $18 million in the last 10 years, according to county officials.
“There’s a whole lot being spent in the towns,” William Lecates, the county’s director of Community Housing and Development, said. “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.”
The Delaware State Housing Authority-administered grants are available to benefit low- to moderate-income through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a variety of public and private projects. Grant money can be used for construction of neighborhood centers and improvements to public buildings, for instance.
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 said. Of the 206 grant requests in the 2007 application, 166 are for rehabilitations — housing renovation projects — and 35 are for assistance paying water or sewer hookup fees. A state panel will review each application later this year before awarding grants. (For more information on the details of the state-administered grant, visit www.hud.gov.)
Unincorporated residents are at significant disadvantage, however, as far as even 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, municipality 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 many residents who have benefited from the program shook hands with Lecates at a Tuesday council meeting, thanking him for his efforts, others who have been left out wondered when it would be their turn.
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 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.”
Taking time to rework requests — and possibly fit some Lucas residents in, he said — Lecates will return to county council next week seeking the council’s blessing before submitting the application.
Unincorporated requests for assistance make up about $1.1 million 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 rehabs — mostly 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.