New senior services program one of the most comprehensive in 20 years By ANNETTE ESTERHELD Staff Writer
If you're 65 years or older, you qualify for a new program the city of Bowie is hammering out that could provide you with funds to assist with repairs to your Bowie home.
"This is a citizen-based program and probably the largest direct program with specific services for citizens that the city has initiated in the past 20 years," Jesse Buggs told the Blade-News.
Buggs has been the city's grants administrator for four years and his role has been to administer a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development through its Community Development Block Fund. Those monies, usually around $200,000 yearly, have been used to fix up sidewalks and curbings in Old Bowie, a project the city has funded for the past 20 years.
During last year, Buggs got a clear message from HUD that they would prefer its monies be used for services related to housing, instead of infrastructure. Changing that direction has meant several surveys and data-gathering, but Buggs feels he's on the right track because, not only have the surveys shown that senior citizens need help repairing and updating their homes, but he's been able to double the pot of money the city gets from HUD.
HUD's allocation for the year beginning July 1 is $170,000, but that's been leveraged to $340,000 from matching funds from an organization called the Open Door Housing Fund.
"Open Door is an investment trust of $18 million. They recently received a grant of $250,000 from the state of Maryland to spend in a community in Prince George's County that is doing a progressive project in housing rehabilitation and development," said Buggs.
He said, "That's exactly the program being designed by the city."
He invited Open Door to tour the city and provided them with information about the program for senior citizens that the city is developing.
"After that meeting, Open Door went to the state and talked about using their funds for our Bowie project and the state gave its blessings," he said.
Buggs said it gets even better. He received word earlier this week that there's a bill in Congress, expected to pass this summer, that will help local governments with green building initiatives by creating a new residential energy efficient block grant program based on the same distribution formula the CDBG uses.
"This will be another CDBG fund that the city can tap into because it's focusing on exactly what the city is already planning on doing," said Buggs.
So what exactly is this new program? "Our surveys and data showed that Bowie has a significant number of senior citizens that are living in our community in houses that need some repairs," he said. "Over the past few weeks I've held meetings with senior citizens to get their input on the program and I've talked to seniors out in the community at grocery stores and coffee shops."
Buggs learned that the city's data is "right on track" and that some seniors cannot afford to do needed repairs. Some, he said, are getting help from their children and others are "suffering silently."
"I asked people what kind of repairs are needed," he said. "I learned people have roofs leaking that they tolerate because they don't have money to fix them. Siding and trim need replacement. The electrical systems date back to the 1960s when the house was built. Appliances need upgrading. Bathrooms need to be wheelchair accessible and people need safer ways to take showers."
And the list goes on he said to include carpeting so old its creating health hazards, drafty doors and windows, poor attic insulation, and gutters folks can't climb to clean.
Buggs didn't stop there. He asked for community input on how seniors can qualify for the program since income, great or small, is not one of the HUD requirements. "All senior citizens are eligible, but there has to be some kind of ranking of who gets help first because there's so many needs," he said.
He said the community told him no one under age 65 should be included, although that's a gray area where the senior citizen cutoff begins; that the physical condition of the person or the home should be taken into account, for instance diabetics and people in wheelchairs might be higher on the list; and issues concerning how safe the home currently is. There's also considerations on whether the program is a loan program, a matching funds program or a straight out grant.
"What we're looking at is requiring folks to stay in their homes a certain number of years, maybe three or five, after the work is completed," said Buggs. "What we're not about is fixing up homes so people can sell them and move to Florida, Arizona or even Delaware."
"The way the CDBG funds work we have five years to do this program. That gives us time to do many projects," Buggs said. He also said the $340,000 pot of money could be leveraged and next year there could be several hundred thousand additional funds. As far as he's concerned, "there's no ceiling. There's money out there, especially for what we're attempting to put in place."
It's too early to begin applying for the program for funds. Buggs still has to take all the information he's gathered from the community and fine-tune all the program details and submit it to HUD in August. He expects the city will be ready to receive applications from senior citizens wanting in the program by this fall.
"What we do know is that this is exactly the kind of program that HUD is looking for," said Buggs. "They have enthusiastically embraced our shift."
