Councilman Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5, reads a resolution to the city council, outlining an amendment to the Department of Development’s Annual Action Plan for 2024. Screenshot courtesy of the City of Jamestown’s website

The Department of Development is looking to expand its housing improvement mini-grant program.

Doing so will require an amendment to the city’s Fiscal Year Annual Action Plan 2024 plan submitted to the federal Housing and Urban Development Department. A resolution was brought before the City Council at the most recent council meeting, with full council approval on the agenda for Monday’s meeting.

The city Department of Development administered the Housing Repair Mini Grant through the American Rescue Plan Allocation in 2023 and 2024. This program has proven to be successful in the administration of small housing repair grants in the maximum amount of $2,500. The Department of Development has drafted an amendment to the fiscal year 2024 Annual Action Plan to expand the mini grant program using existing Housing and Urban Development funds that city officials say are underutilized.

Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5 and council Housing Committee chairman, read the resolution to the council, saying that the Department of Development has prepared an Annual Action Plan amendment for Fiscal Years 2021, 2022, and 2023 to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and successfully created a First Time Homebuyers Assistance Program through HOME Investment Partnership funds and no longer utilizes the CDBG Housing Counseling Program.

Crystal Surdyk, city development director, said amendments like the one on Monday’s agenda are something that happen often.

“We will do this often, usually a couple of times throughout the year,” Surdyk said. “We are constantly evaluating how we are spending funds, making sure that we are getting proper HUD funding out into our community. It does us and the community no good for it to sit around waiting to be used.”

Surdyk added that the department had also seen very good success through their previous mini grant program with ARPA and that program was the basis to develop a new HUD funded program. The Department of Development has replaced and expanded on Crime Awareness and Prevention with an improved program for 2024 referred to as Community Engagement/Enhanced Community Safety and $1,900.00 of the CDBG Housing Counseling allocation for 2021 is being reallocated to CDBG Small Housing Repair Program. $21,122.80 of the CDBG Crime Awareness and Prevention allocation for 2022 is being reallocated to the CDBG Small Housing Repair Program. $29,700.00 of the CDBG Crime Awareness and Prevention allocation for 2023 is being reallocated to CDBG Small Housing Repair Program.

The reallocation of these funds would result in a total of $52,722.80 in small housing repair grants not to exceed $4,500.00 with a recapture agreement of five years.

“So that is what this request is,” Surdyk said. “We had a number of other programs that there were small amounts left over in those programs. … So that’s what this request is to essentially reallocate those small amounts into this new grant.”