STANTON : City Joins Plan for Home Improvement

The city Redevelopment Agency has joined a county program to replace substandard housing and provide loans to low-income families to improve their properties, city officials said Monday.

As part of the county’s replacement housing program, Community Development Manager Bonnie Kirk said, the city will help replace dilapidated housing with donated homes, and provide low- and no-interest loans for qualified residents.

Under the program, low-income families who own homes that do not meet city codes or have been condemned can have them torn down and replaced with homes that have been donated to the county, Kirk said. The program also offers financial assistance to families that improve their property.

“This is not a giveaway,” Kirk said. “It’s in the form of a low-interest loan, or a no-interest loan.”

To qualify for a low-interest loan, a family of four must have a total annual income of less than $36,000. Families of four with yearly incomes less than $25,000 qualify for no-interest loans.

“It benefits the city because it eliminates some of our substandard housing stock and replaces it” with housing stock that meets city standards, Kirk said. The city and its redevelopment agency have set aside about $180,000 for the program, she said.