Whole Home Repairs is up and running in Lancaster County, Michaela Allwine said Friday.
Allwine is director of housing and community development at the Lancaster County Redevelopment Authority, which is administering the program. It launched April 3, and staffers have fielded about 75 inquiries and applications so far, she said.
Whole Home Repairs provides money for eligible low- and moderate-income households to make critical repairs to their houses. Landlords are not eligible.
Recipients can have household incomes up to 80% of the area median, which in Lancaster County is $50,550 for an individual and $72,150 for a family of four. Lancaster city homeowners can receive grants of up to $25,000; county homeowners can receive a 0% interest loan of $25,000 as well, for total assistance of $50,000.
For more information
To find out more about Whole Home Repairs in Lancaster County and to apply, click here. There is a required pre-application questionnaire at the top of the page and an application portal toward the bottom.
For a paper application, download and print out this PDF, or call the Lancaster County Redevelopment Authority at (717) 394-0793.
The authority is actively recruiting contractors to deploy on Whole Home Repairs projects. To learn more, contact Noemi Martinez, assistant administrator, at (717) 394-0793 x220 or nmartinez@lchra.com
The county has about $4 million to work with. Some will go toward administration and workforce training, but most goes directly to fund repairs, Allwine said.
The authority is combining Whole Home Repairs with other funding streams to maximize its effectiveness, she said. If a house has a lead contamination problem, for example, that can be remedied through Lancaster city’s Lead Hazard Control program or Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health’s Lead-Free Families.
Lancaster city has its own critical repair program, and that is continuing. The city will use it when there’s an immediate issue, but will then refer clients to the authority when there is additional work that Whole Home Repairs can cover, Allwine said.
Whole Home Repairs is funded with state American Rescue Plan Act dollars. Like the rest of ARPA, funds must be committed by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.
(Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Lancaster County landlords were eligible for Whole Home Repair. The county has elected to opt out of that portion of the program.)
