Lorain looks to fill vacant parcels with affordable homes through state program

LORAIN — Lorain could use state funding to spur housing development. The city, alongside the county, plans to apply for money from the Welcome Home Ohio program to help fund in-fill housing on former school sites or other vacant parcels, Building, Housing and Planning Director Matt Kusznir said during a Building and Lands Committee meeting Monday evening. In-fill housing looks to build new homes where previous residential properties were demolished due to blight. The Welcome Home Ohio program, operated by the state's Department of Development, has a $25 million funding pot available to municipalities, land banks and nonprofits to build single-family homes for income-eligible families. Lorain County hopes to apply for about $5 million — enough to help build as many as 50 homes, county Commissioner Dave Moore said during the meeting. The homes would be available to households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income — or about $119,000 for a family of four. The program would provide a $100,000 subsidy per home for builders, allowing the potential sale price of a home to better fit the pricing of the neighborhood where the in-fill housing is being built. For example, one of Lorain's proposed in-fill areas is near Nativity Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Stoveworks in Ward 2. A majority of homes in that neighborhood have appraised values of $70,000 to $150,000, according to the Lorain County Auditor's website. While it could cost a developer $250,000 to build a home there, that neighborhood would not support that sale price — but the $100,000 subsidy would help lower the sale price to make it more in line with nearby properties. "It makes doing infill development actually possible because if not …. how are you going to build something that's even $200,000 when you're selling it for less than half," Kusznir said on Wednesday. "That's where that funding really comes in and closes that gap." The program has a max sale price of $220,000 for each home and requires income-eligible buyers live in the home for at least three years and it remain in the hands of income-eligible buyers for 15 years — meaning a family could not purchase a house and flip it as a rental or sell it to an out-of-state company. The Stoveworks site itself is not on the city's list of proposed in-fill sites using the Welcome Home Ohio funds, Kusznir said, as brownfield remediation is ongoing and may interfere with the Department of Development's timeline if the city is awarded WHO funds. Other potential sites for the WHO funds include the former Lakeview Elementary site in Ward 7 and the former Whittier and Lowell school sites in Ward 6. Lakeview Elementary School opened in 1953, closed in 2011, and was demolished in 2014. The property, walking distance from Lakeview Park South, is zoned R-2 residential and could support 18 homes. The former Whittier Junior High and Lowell Elementary school sites already are part of housing development plans by Raise Up, formerly Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority. The old Whittier site, near East 32nd Street and Seneca Avenue, housed students for more than 80 years until it was demolished in 2012. Lowell Elementary, near East 32nd and Clinton Avenue, opened in the mid-1960s and was demolished in 2015. Kusznir said there could be 16 single-family homes built on the parcels, as well as another 13 to 15 potential in-fill lots scattered between East 36th and East 39th Streets along Denver and Toledo avenues. The city has reached out to local banks, including Third Federal Savings and Loan, about potential financing options and programs to both facilitate builds, and help create a pipeline of qualified buyers for the proposed properties. Applications for WHO funding open Dec. 8. A timeline of awards was not immediately available on Wednesday. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.