Grant to fix or replace six subpar houses

Six substandard houses in Craven County will be replaced or upgraded with a $400,000 grant awarded to Craven County.

The Scattered Site Community Development Block Grant project will be managed by Holland Consulting Planners of Wilmington through a contract approved Monday night by the Craven County Board of Commissioners.

Don Baumgardner, county planning director, asked commissioners to approve the contract with Holland and requested that the chairman be authorized to enter into the contract with the state.

The project includes replacing two houses in Harlowe, significant renovation to a house in New Bern and one in Cove City, and moderate rehabilitation to a dwelling in Vanceboro and one in New Bern, said Reed Whitsell, community development manager for Holland.

 “The county identified six substandard housing units based on an outreach process and an ongoing application process,” said Whitsell. “It has to be a competitive application process” and some of these have been awaiting assistance for almost 10 years.

He said the homeowners designated through the process are in households making less than 50 percent of the median income for families of similar size in the county “so you are talking about people who in many cases have income of less than $10,000 a year.”

 The work is bid competitively and mostly done by area contractors on behalf of the county, which prepares the specifications for homeowners and supervises the work.

Those receiving help sign an agreement that if they sell the renovated or replaced dwelling within 10 years, they have to repay a pro-rata portion. They also have to agree to maintain insurance and pay the taxes.

This grant was the third non-competitive grant the county has received through a scattered site program. It is funded by federal Housing and Urban Development, which this year made $13.2 million available to the N.C. Department of Commerce community assistance division.

The money has been awarded by the state to counties on a three-year rotation cycle since 2001and Craven County received money in 2003 and 2006.

Whitsell said the community block grant program began in 1974 and was managed by HUD in Greensboro until 1982, when the state took over management and originally awarded all grants competitively.

Craven County got its first competitive grant award in 1984 for work done in James City.

Scattered Site grants rotate but there are still some competitive Community Development Block Grants and Craven County has another application in the works for additional work in James City.

Chad Strawn, assistant county planning director, said the county is still awaiting word on whether it will get the $850,000 competitive grant for that project, and expects to have word of its award by the end of the year.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.