As many as nine houses in Lutsen will be rehabilitated over the next year if the county receives funding from a Minnesota Small Cities Application that was submitted to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) on behalf of the Cook County/Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA), said Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency (AEOA) Director of Housing Scott Zahorik.
And while Zahorik, who was addressing the Cook County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 23, said while there are no guarantees of getting the grant, at this point in the process, “Things look pretty good.”
Zahorik appeared before commissioners at a public hearing held to hear requests and comments. However, no one from the public spoke up when County Board Chair Heidi Doo-Kirk opened the floor for questions.
AEOA prepared and submitted an application for a grant on November 10, 2015.
Many homeowners in Cook County need work on their houses but have debt loads too high to qualify for financing, or don’t make enough money to qualify for a normal loan through a bank, said Zahorik. Funds from a DEED grant can help the homeowners who qualify for the program replace worn shingles, windows, doors, siding, etc. on a house to make it weather proof and more efficient, but the grant money can’t be used to increase the square footage of a house, said Zahorik.
An example of low income, said Zahorik, is a family of four that lives on $48,000 or less a year.
In the past few years AEOA has worked with homeowners and businesses in Grand Marais to secure grant funds from the DEED program. Now that his agency has expanded its services to Lutsen, Zahorik said it would just be a matter of time before homeowners throughout the rest of the county will be eligible to receive low interest grants through DEED and AEOA.
The redevelopment grant program helps communities with the cost of redeveloping blighted industrial, residential, or commercial sites and putting land back into productive use.
Once it is known that the grant money will be forthcoming, Zahorik said AEOA would ask homeowners to apply for what is described as a “deferred loan.” If qualified, candidates that stay in their homes for 10 years would not have to pay back any of the money. Should they sell their home before then, they will be charged 10 percent per year. So, said Commissioner Garry Gamble, if they lived in their house for five years and sold it, they would have to pay half of the money they received back.
The more applications AEOA gets, the better, said Zahorik.
The basic grant is $24,750 with another possible $7,500 coming from Minnesota Housing or from the Department of Commerce. The $7,500 would be based on an assessment of each individual’s circumstance, said Zahorik, giving some homeowners as much as $32,000 to work with.
Doo-Kirk said while it is tough for some people to come in and ask for help, the grant process should help those people because they can apply from home, and she encouraged everyone in need to fill out an application.
Commissioner Frank Moe asked Zahorik if some counties are better than others at getting Small Cities grant money, and he named Kittson County as one county who was very good at getting DEED money. Moe and the rest of the board encouraged Zahorik to find out how the more successful counties obtain Small Cities funding, and bring that information back to the county board, which he agreed to do.
Leave a Reply