Dayton council hears plan for Issue 6-funded home-repair loan program to target middle‑income homeowners

City staff told the Dayton City Commission on Dec. 2 that a new revolving, forgivable loan program funded by the Issue 6 levy will provide 0% interest loans to help middle-income homeowners pay for structural, exterior repairs.

Emily Crow, deputy director of Planning, Neighborhood and Development, described the program as a $2.6 million pilot running through 2028 (about $650,000 per year). The program will prioritize owner‑occupied households earning 80–120% of area median income (AMI) for a 2:1 match; a second priority tier above 120% AMI would receive a 1:1 match. Loans are structured with a five‑year forgivable term, with forgiveness accruing at about 20% per year, Crow said.

Crow said eligible work will focus on exterior and structural improvements such as doors, foundations, windows and roofs. County Corp will administer underwriting, inspections and contractor management, she said, and staff aim to keep administrative costs low so more than 93% of program dollars go to repairs. Crow said the city will phase the program geographically, targeting Madden Hills, Fairview, Dayton View Triangle and Wolf Creek as pilot neighborhoods and aiming for roughly 20 units a year (with a possible increase to 40 units in 2025 because of an existing queue of eligible applications).

City manager Dixing and staff said the program is intended to fill a service gap for households above the 80% AMI cutoff for CDBG-funded programs and to leverage additional funds, including roughly $7 million in state "Welcome Home" funding through the land bank and about $1 million from Wright-Patt Credit Union, along with private partners and other programs.

Public-support organizations and program partners told the commission the program fills an important gap. "Plenty of folks living over [80% AMI] don't have enough equity to get a private loan," said Caitlin Jacob of Citywide Development, noting the program can make older homes more livable and help stabilize neighborhoods. Aileen Hull of the Dayton Energy Collaborative, which chairs the Dayton Home Repair Network, told commissioners the program would help clear a consolidated wait list of roughly 900 eligible households.

Commissioners asked staff for transparency tools and program metrics. Commissioner Harris Lawson requested neighborhood-level examples and documentation of prior investments the presentation cited; staff said a public dashboard and quarterly reporting are planned and that the new program will be integrated into an existing "Your Dollars, Your Neighborhood" portal. Crow said staff will prioritize applicants from the existing network list and tie eligibility to recent housing-condition surveys.

The city manager asked the commission to approve the associated development agreement and recommended actions needed to move the program forward. The commission later moved and voted on the city manager's recommendations during the consent/agenda votes recorded in the meeting (the full consent motions and recorded votes appear in the meeting record). The city's website and the Dayton Home Repair Network will list application information and contacts for the program, staff said.

What's next: staff said they will roll out public announcements on adoption, launch the portal/dashboard early next year and begin outreach to the existing queue of eligible applicants.