Committee advances $5M CHN contract and $4M in tax-relief pilot design for seniors

The Cuyahoga County Community Development Committee voted Nov. 18 to advance a two-year pilot program designed to help seniors facing property-tax delinquency and to authorize contracting for program administration and housing counseling.

Brad Cromas, county treasurer, presented the proposal and said the pilot would provide up to $10,000 in one-time assistance per taxpayer for qualifying homeowners, with direct-assistance pools of $2 million in each of two years and a separate $500,000 pool each year for housing counseling and program administration by CHN Housing Partners. Cromas said CHN’s contract for housing counseling and program administration is proposed “in the amount not to exceed $5,000,000” for two years.

Cromas described eligibility parameters in the proposal presented to the committee: applicants age 70 or older, with annual incomes at or below $70,000, and who are property-tax delinquent. To discourage short-term flipping, the proposal includes residency-duration and post-assistance longevity requirements: recipients would have to have lived in the property for at least three years before assistance and remain in the home for three years after receiving funds.

Cromas said the treasurer’s office worked with county GIS to build a public dashboard mapping parcels that are both on the homestead exemption and tax delinquent. He said the GIS review identified 4,022 parcels that meet both conditions, with aggregate delinquent balances of about $26 million. The treasurer’s office plans to send a direct-mail letter to the roughly 4,022 households the office identified as the “most likely participants.”

To address equitable access and late applicants, Cromas proposed a two-part distribution approach: a proportional allocation by council district in year one (every district guaranteed at least 2% of the pool, up to a maximum of 18%), and a utilization-based redistribution in year two based on actual demand. He said the program would initially operate on a first-come, first-served basis for each district’s tranche and would preserve a “hardest-hit reserve” to be distributed by lottery for late or underserved applicants.

Cromas said CHN would accept applications through an online portal and triage applicants into either the pilot program or referrals to other services. If approved for assistance, CHN would assign a HUD-certified housing counselor to develop a spending plan and provide required HUD housing-counseling check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days; the county treasurer’s office would then advance funds to clear delinquent tax balances and enroll recipients in EasyPay (the county’s monthly prepayment option) and a delinquent-tax contract when applicable.

Committee members asked how the treasurer’s office will ensure equitable outreach, given that initial public interest forms (about 500 responses) were collected online before formal council approval and that a public launch event occurred in a single district. Several council members said they were not aware of outreach before the meeting and raised concerns that a first-come, first-served launch could advantage residents who learned of the program early. Cromas responded that the district-by-district allocation and the hardest-hit lottery were intended to address those equity concerns and that the office would coordinate with the Department of Senior and Adult Services (DSAS) and other partners to assist seniors without online access.

Funding sources and budget mechanics were discussed. Cromas said each year has a $2,000,000 direct-assistance pool and a $500,000 CHN administration/housing counseling pool; he described projected surpluses and proposed using any CHN administration overage to seed the hardest-hit lottery. Committee members also discussed the county’s delinquent-tax (DTech/DTEK) fund balance: Cromas told the committee the county currently holds roughly $11 million in the delinquent-tax fund and that statutory restrictions limit how those dollars may be used.

Committee members requested quarterly reporting on who was served, how the program was marketed, and follow-up outreach to those who do not apply. Several members also asked the treasurer to provide written documentation listing prior outreach to council members.

The committee voted unanimously to forward the measure to full council with a recommendation for suspension of second reading, a move intended to accelerate the program’s availability ahead of upcoming tax-bill cycles.