CHENANGO COUNTY – Although the flooding of 2006 is two years behind us, people are still struggling to recover from the burden of losing their homes and being forced to find alternative living situations.
Opportunities for Chenango hopes to help ease that burden by providing housing help for flood victims.
More than 1,300 Chenango County residents registered with FEMA after the flooding of June 2006, but according to Opportunities for Chenango’s Quaranta Housing Services CEO Wayne Vierra, OFC has continued receiving calls from people who were affected.
“Some people, I feel, didn’t come forward because of a fear that their homes would be condemned,” Vierra said. “We’ve talked to people who are living on the second floor because the first floor was damaged during the flooding. They’re afraid if they come forward they’ll be hit with code violations.”
Vierra and Karen Glasbergen, executive assistant at OFC, are trying to reach out to those people with their Affordable Housing Services Awareness Campaign. The campaign will include workshops in three locations in Chenango and Broome County. OFC also has nearly $1 million dollars available to assist flood victims in the purchase of a new home.
“One of our major priorities during the month of June is getting this money out to help buy homes,” Vierra said. The program, which is administered as part of the First Time Homebuyer Program at OFC, offers financial assistance to home owners or renters who were displaced as a result of the June 2006 flooding.
Applicants for the program must have an income below 112 percent of the county median – approximately $42,500 for a family of three. To qualify, they also need to have fairly good credit. They must participate in OFC’s Home-buyer Education and Financial Literacy Program and they must want to live in either Chenango or Broome County.
Qualifying participants will receive funds on a first come, first serve basis. The program provides $22,500 to assist with a down payment, closing costs and home repairs. Individuals who were displaced as a result of the flood who have already purchased a new home may also be eligible. In that case, Vierra explained the funds would have to be used toward home repairs. “There are a lot of older homes in the area that need improvements,” Vierra said. During the course of the program, an OFC inspector would go to the house and determine what repairs are required and what is necessary. The program requires that a minimum of 51 percent of the funds go toward repairs.
The three public workshops which will contain additional information about these programs will be: 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24 at the Eastern Broome Senior Center in Harpursville; 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25 at the Bainbridge Town Hall in Bainbridge; and from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 26 at the Conklin Presbyterian Church.
“Anybody can attend the events, but we targeted them toward the areas that saw the most damage during the flooding,” Glasbergen said.
Glasbergen and Vierra explained that they are hoping to give away as much money as possible, however since the funding for the program was provided through a grant, they are operating on a time schedule, and if all the money isn’t given away, they will lose the funds.
Vierra explained that long-term recovery often takes between three and five years, so the flood programs have not been taken out of the work plan yet. OFC has given flood victims priority in several of their programs over the last two years, and they will continue to do so.
For more information about the housing assistance program, attend one of the workshops, call OFC at 1-866-456-3051 or visit their web site at www.quarantahousing.org.