Uniontown authority receives $265,000 state grant
The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority has received a state grant for $265,000 to rehabilitate 11 Uniontown homes, including three for first-time homebuyers, through its Home program. The grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development will be used with federal Community Development Block Grant funds to provide loans and grants to eight existing homeowners to fix up their houses and for three first-time buyers.
“We’re trying to strengthen people’s lives and the community,” Redevelopment Authority Executive Director William Long said. “We can accomplish both with the Home program.”
Although the grant was the first for the authority’s program since 1995, CDBG funds have kept the program operating, Long said.
He said grant will boost the Home program budget by 50 percent.
The budget was $480,000 before the grant.
Some of the money has to be in the form of loans so money can be recaptured and used for other home rehabilitation projects, he said.
The grant will enable the authority to provide low-interest and deferred loans and grants to city residents and first-time buyers, who meet income qualifications, for making needed repairs and bringing their homes up to the city’s building code. Long said lead-based paint remediation is required in some rehabilitation projects.
“I thank the Department of Community and Economic Development for its generous grant,” state Rep. Larry Roberts, D-South Union Twp., said when he announced the grant. “We are grateful to be able to rehabilitate these homes and improve Uniontown.”
Long said 50 current homeowners are on the program waiting list and some potential first-time buyers have already applied for funds. He said interested first-timers should call the authority at 724-438-7968.
He said the lucky three first-time buyers will be required to have pre-purchase counseling from Fayette County Community Action. The counseling is designed to help potential homeowners with financial planning and make them “mortgage ready,” he said.
“This is the perfect time (to buy) with interest rates so low,” Long said.
Qualifying annual income for a family of four is $39,000 for the existing owners and first-time buyers, he said. The amount of income varies with the number of family members.