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Committee to study raising income eligibility for University Heights exterior maintenance grant
Summary
The Building and Housing Committee discussed raising the income threshold for the city's exterior maintenance grant after staff said few residents applied under the current limit. Members asked staff for application records and local income data and agreed to table the ordinance for further review.
The University Heights Building and Housing Committee discussed an ordinance to raise income eligibility for the city's exterior maintenance grant at its Sept. 15 meeting, and agreed to table the measure while staff gather application records and local income data.
Vice Mayor Weiss proposed increasing the program's eligibility from 120% of the federal poverty level to 200% "so more people would be able to take advantage of this program," she said, giving example income figures on the HUD chart used by staff ("a family household of 1 needs to make 31,300 to be eligible, and a family household of 4 ... 64,300" in one cited federal chart and later HUD-derived numbers of $55,006.50 for a one-person household and about $79,500 for a family of four were discussed during the meeting).
The change is intended to address low take-up: Markell Davis, the city's director of housing and community development, told the committee that in 2024 the department processed four applications for the exterior program and that "2 of the 4 were approved, but they failed to follow through." Davis said two others were rejected for failing to meet the income limit.
Why it matters: the city allocates funds for the exterior program, and members said the current threshold appears to exclude many residents who might need help. Committee members noted there is about $25,000 available per year for the program, and that under the present activity the money largely goes unused.
The committee discussed which federal standard to adopt. Davis and members noted two distinct federal references were in circulation: the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) limits — which vary by metropolitan area and generated the higher figures the committee saw on the city's application page — and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines, which are a single nationwide table (except for Hawaii and Alaska). Brad Bryant, the city's law director, said the city does not use HUD funding for this program and is therefore "under no obligation to use HUD guidelines," adding the city can choose any regularly updated standard so long as the choice reasonably reaches residents the council intends to help.
Committee members asked staff to take the following steps before the ordinance is brought back: produce previous exterior-program applications for review, provide multi-year inspection/application data, and compile median household and individual income figures for University Heights (committee members cited a city median figure that one attendee read from Census data: $98,474 for 2023). Several members asked staff to compare how many residents would qualify under alternate percent thresholds and to report back with how many expected applicants would be reached at each level.
Rather than amend and adopt the ordinance at first reading, committee members agreed to have the council table the item and refer it back to Building and Housing after staff provide the requested information.
Next steps: staff will assemble prior-year applications and the requested income breakdowns and present findings to the committee; the ordinance will be held at the council meeting and formally tabled and referred back to the committee for final evaluation.
