County committee presses pause on $5M property tax assistance pilot; asks treasurer and CHN for more detail

The Cuyahoga County Community Development Committee heard a detailed presentation Monday on a proposed two-year, $5 million pilot to help older homeowners at risk of property-tax foreclosure, but it did not approve the contract and asked staff to return with more details.

Brad Grama, the county treasurer, told the committee the pilot would make up to $10,000 in one-time financial assistance available to taxpayers who are age 70 or older and earn $70,000 or less annually, limited to primary residences and targeted at owners with delinquent property-tax obligations. The proposal requires recipients to participate in HUD-certified housing counseling and to enroll in the county's monthly EasyPay program; it also includes a proposed residency-duration safeguard that would require three years of prior residency and a three-year post-assistance residency requirement evidenced by a note filed in the land records to discourage speculative use.

"The $10,000 amount is a direct tieback to a pandemic era program that CHN had administered," Grama said. "We are also requiring folks to participate in the program to participate in our EasyPay monthly prepayment program, which... will help people stay stable." He described a proposed budget of up to $5,000,000 from the delinquent tax assessment and collection (DTAC) fund: $2,000,000 for direct assistance, $500,000 for housing counseling services and the remainder for administration and program delivery over two years.

Representatives from CHN Housing Partners, Nina Holzer and Laura Bustani, described intake and counseling operations and said CHN would add two HUD-certified foreclosure counselors for the pilot. "Typically, those counselors will see between 8 to 10 people a week," Holzer said, and CHN said it could scale counseling with partners if direct-assistance funds are exhausted but counseling demand continues.

Committee members raised multiple concerns: whether the program should be first-come, first-served or use a lottery or district allocations; whether delinquent-tax fund revenue is the appropriate source; how to avoid raising false hope among seniors who paid taxes but still face other hardships; and how success will be measured. Councilman Gallagher and others asked for a report back six months after program launch; Councilwoman Simon and others asked staff to work with council members on distribution rules so each council district can access the program. Several members noted the county lacks perfect demographic data tied to tax rolls and that the administration had estimated roughly 4,000 potentially eligible households.

After more than an hour of discussion and many questions, the committee did not vote to approve the contract today. Members asked the treasurer and CHN to return with clarified allocation and prioritization plans and agreed to schedule follow-up committee consideration for mid-November (the committee noted Nov. 18 as a potential meeting date). The treasurer said the administration still intends to seek council action to allow the program to be in place prior to property tax bills arriving late December/January.