Homeowner Helper Program Progresses City Manager Explains Background
Lexington’s Threshold Housing Commission has begun work on developing a program that would provide funds to assist homeowners with much needed repairs.
The Homeowner Helper Program is an idea that City Manager Tom Carroll brought with him to Lexington, having previously developed a version of it in Silverton, Ohio, and beginning to work on one in Cambridge, Md., before coming to Lexington.
Its origins in Silverton stemmed from a directive from the village council (Ohio has villages instead of towns) to improve the neighborhood by citing homeowners for code violations on the exterior of their homes. Carroll told The News-Gazette that while most people who were cited would comply and fix the problem – and a few had to be forced to through enforcement actions – the process revealed a third set of homeowners: Those who wanted to comply, but were unable to do so.
“There’s about 10 to 15 percent of people who are well aware that their house needs to be painted or that they need a new roof, but they just don’t have the money,” Carroll said. “So then what do you do when you face those circumstances as a city? Because it’s still true that, even if I can’t afford to fix up my house, my house falling into disrepair still affects my neighbor.
“We found ourselves in this cul-de-sac where it’s not somebody thumbing their nose at us [and] it’s not someone who can comply. They can’t [comply].”
Research into these situations found a variety of potential reasons why homeowners might be unable to address the issues they were cited for.
While finances was the primary reason, there were also circumstances where someone’s health or mobility prevented them from making the necessary repairs, or single parents who just didn’t have the time to make the repairs.
The Homeowner Helper Program was designed to help people in those situations with the village funding the repairs and placing a lien on the property for the value of the repairs. The program would get the money back through the lien when the property sold in the future, which could then be put toward other projects.
Additionally, since the program used locally collected tax dollars, there weren’t as many hoops for people seeking assistance through the program to jump through.
“If you tell us you can’t afford to do it, we’re pretty much going to believe you,” Carroll said. “If you show up in a Mercedes, we’re going to question that, but if you just basically tell us on your word, ‘I need help fixing up my porch,’ we’re going to believe you, and we’re not going to go through and do a historic assessment or endangered species things – the red tape. And it’s local dollars so we don’t have to. We do the due diligence that we determine is necessary because it is public funds, but that’s it. That way, we don’t get bogged down in spending oodles of time just trying to help five people fix up their house.”
During the two or three years he oversaw the program in Silverton, Carroll estimated that five or six projects were completed. One of the biggest lessons he learned from the very first project – which cost around $20,000 in repairs to the outside of the house – was that sometimes, the outside of the house is only part of the problem.
“What we learned is we have to look at the entirety of the house, even if we’re only concerned about the exterior, and that’s what Threshold is doing [in Lexington],” Carroll said. “Another issue being discussed is wraparound services. If somebody has a hoarding proclivity, they need assistance with that. Those of us who don’t face that challenge think they should just throw everything away, but that’s not what they do and me wishing that’s what they would do doesn’t make it so. So if there are other issues like accessibility or if we get into it and [the house] has a structural problem, the goal remains the same – how do we help the house be livable, stable, maintain its value and not [become] a detriment to its neighbors and the community.”
Carroll left Silverton in 2022 and moved to Cambridge, Md., where he also worked to develop a Homeowner Helper Program. He left Cambridge in 2024 to come to Lexington before its program began taking on projects, though Glenn Steckman, the current city manager in Cambridge, told The News-Gazette that the program is available and has been utilized by some homeowners since its inception. Similar to Silverton, the program is primarily initiated through enforcement of code violations, but Steckman said that people have reached out to inquire about it without being cited.
“People have problems with their house and sometimes they simply can’t afford to fix it and the problem’s just going to get worse,” he said. “If it helps stabilize the house and preserve safety, it’s worth every dime of it, especially for keeping older people in their homes.”
Silverton has since discontinued its Homeowner Helper Program, shifting the remaining funds to a program that provides grants to local businesses to improve their facades. Jack Cameron, the current village manager, noted that Hamilton County where Silverton is located has a program similar to the Homeowner Helper Program that is based on income. He also said that a couple who had gone through the program and had a $25,000 lien placed on their property declared bankruptcy and had the lien cleared, meaning it would be unlikely that the money would be paid back if the property sold.
“It felt like a money giveaway, and that felt like it wasn’t the best approach,” he said.
Carroll told The News-Gazette in an email that he has “been clear in all three communities that some losses of loan amounts are to be expected,” though he also acknowledged that a loss of $25,000 is “hard to accept.” Currently, Lexington has budgeted $250,000 for the program. -Unlike the Silverton and Cambridge programs, the one being developed in Lexington would not be based on code enforcement at all, but would work to address a need. Homeowners will be able to apply to the program for repairs they otherwise couldn’t afford or complete themselves. Applications will be reviewed and a determination will be made on whether or not the applicant qualifies for funds through the program. If they don’t, or if there’s a larger issue that is outside of the scope of the Homeowner Helper Program, the applicant will be directed to other programs that could provide assistance.
“Having a commission like the Threshold commission is really valuable from my point of view,” Carroll said. “There are [members] who are plugged in to different nonprofits in the organization, people who are focused on anything from homelessness to RARA, that are connected to the Diamond Hill neighborhood, that are homegrown and raised in the community and know some of the backstory about that house or this house and the family and what happened and how it got to the condition [that it’s in]. I don’t have that inside knowledge … They bring a great deal of expertise in knowing community resources that I just haven’t had the time yet to realize.” -Over the past couple months, Threshold has developed an overview of the program and is beginning to work on developing specific parameters, policies and procedures for how it will be implemented.
An outline of the timeline of the review process was reviewed at its most recent meeting on May 28. In this preliminary process, the first step would be a preliminary review by the city planner’s office to determine if the requested repairs fell within the scope of the program and to go over the specifics of the program’s parameters and lien process with the homeowner.
After that, the city will visit the homes and do inspections to determine the need and extent of repairs. Costs will then be estimated and given to a contractor, who will prepare cost estimates. The projects will then be reviewed by Threshold, who will make recommendations about which projects to fund to the city’s Economic Development Authority for authorization of the funds. Any applications that are rejected at this phase will be referred to partner organizations or potentially considered offcycle if funds are still available.
The goal is to have the program ready to receive the first round of applications in early 2026 to begin the review process, with the announcement on which projects will be awarded funding announced around Memorial Day.
Carroll told The News-Gazette that he feels that they are on track for that timeline, but there are still several details to work out over the next six months, including what parameters of the project will be reviewed during the initial eligibility review conducted by city staff and what guidelines Threshold will consider during their review phase. A process by which contractors will be hired for the work will also need to be developed, among other things.
“We have to think through how do we do this fairly,” Carroll said. “How do we make sure everybody has an opportunity to participate in competing for the work, but how do we not make it too bureaucratic at the same time? Those are the competing goals of the responsibility for public funds, but we’re also trying to be nimble and swift [in awarding funding].”
Threshold has been using the findings of the windshield survey conducted last October to potentially identify homes that may benefit from this program. The survey ranked the houses in Lexington on a scale from one to five based on the exterior condition of the home visible from the street.
The majority of the houses in Lexington were rated one or two, meaning that minimal disrepair was noted. Around 70 properties were rated three or higher, indicating more significant deterioration of the house. Many of those houses, Carroll noted, would likely not be eligible for the Homeowner Helper Program for a variety of reasons, including being unoccupied or there being a question of who owns the property.
“This is a good program that’s gonna help a pretty narrow set of homeowners in Lexington who are wanting to fix up their house but are lacking the ability,” he said. “They could be right next to a house who needs this assistance equally, but is not eligible because it doesn’t fit into the four corners of the program.
“When I look at the range of housing challenges we have, this is one tool in the toolbox. This is gonna help, but it’s not gonna solve the variety of home problems that we have in the community. But I’m really excited about this, because it does help people age or live in place.”
