Historic Athens uses ARPA funds to rehab older homes, limit displacement

Tanisha Brooks, program coordinator for the Equitable Home Preservation Initiative at Historic Athens, said the ARPA-funded program makes targeted repairs to older homes to keep low- and moderate-income owners in place. The program focuses on houses at least 50 years old, provides up to $25,000 in rehabilitation per home under the EHP award, and is currently structured to serve one house per quarter (about $100,000 in rehab per year).

The initiative, Brooks said, grew in part from work tied to the Athens Justice and Memory Project (Linnentown descendants) and a community allocation process. Brooks said the Linnentown-related funds were reallocated across local projects; she described $500,000 as having been directed to the EHP program, with other amounts directed to downtown down-payment assistance and a Black History Center. She said the EHP award aims to prevent displacement in historic neighborhoods by repairing homes that owners cannot afford to fix.

Brooks described eligibility and outreach: applicants must provide proof of ownership, identification and income, and homes must lie within Qualified Census Tracts…