Cuyahoga County pilot offers up to $10,000 plus counseling for tax-delinquent seniors

Cuyahoga County Treasurer Brad Grama told the Finance and Budgeting Committee on April 28 that the county has launched a two-year taxpayer assistance pilot to help seniors facing tax-delinquency and potential foreclosure. The program offers up to $10,000 in one-time assistance and requires participants to complete HUD-certified housing counseling administered by CHN Housing Partners.

The pilot, which began in December 2024, is structured as a two-year effort with a total funding envelope presented on the county slide as $5,000,000: approximately $2,000,000 per year earmarked for direct assistance and about $500,000 per year for counseling and administration, according to Nina Holzer, program administrator for CHN Housing Partners. Grama said the direct assistance funds come from the county's delinquent tax assessment collection (DTAC) fund.

Under the eligibility rules outlined in the presentation, applicants must be property owners with at least one owner aged 70 or older, have household income of $70,000 or less, and hold a certified tax delinquency (a certification that generally follows more than a year of delinquency and a public advertisement of the balance). Holzer said CHN staff verify ownership history, parcel delinquency status, income and residency during intake and assign qualifying households to HUD-certified counselors for budgeting and sustainment planning.

CHN described a multi-step post-approval process: counselors submit a funding request for approved applicants; staff send an approval email and deliver a check to the county; before applying funds to the tax account, recipients must enroll in the county's EasyPay system, enter any remaining payment plan if applicable, and sign a mortgage note agreeing to retain the property for three years. Counselors then follow up at 30, 60 and 90 days to monitor adherence to payments and budgets, and continued counseling remains available if circumstances change.

Program activity to date included 268 applications received, 183 active files in the CHN queue and 85 applications withdrawn or flagged as ineligible. Holzer said 13 applications had been approved as of the most recent snapshot, totaling just over $88,000; those checks were expected to be cut and delivered to the county the week following the snapshot. Holzer broke down reasons for withdrawals or ineligibility: duplicate submissions (7), missing documentation after outreach attempts (7), clients who declined to proceed (2), prior receipt of similar taxpayer assistance (9), applicants lacking the minimum age (14), insufficient property ownership duration (6), one household over the income cap, properties not owner-occupied (6), and 36 files lacking a certified taxable balance.

Council members asked for more granular tracking by council district. A council member noted five active applications in his district with no approvals; Holzer said those files may still be in counseling or review and offered to provide a follow-up status report. Councilman Schlafur asked what triggers a certified delinquency; Holzer and Grama explained that certification, which is performed by the auditor and enables enforcement actions including foreclosure, generally applies after taxes are delinquent for more than a year and the balance has been advertised. Grama added that the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) does not clearly distinguish between late and certified delinquencies in some places, which affects how the office categorizes eligibility.

Grama said the county expects program utilization to grow after the third-quarter update, when additional delinquencies are certified and expand the eligible pool. He also said the initial two-year pilot is funded from DTAC but staff are pursuing conversations with banking partners about potential supplemental funding if the program continues past the pilot period. On the state level, Grama told the committee that while several proposals to address property-tax issues are under discussion in Columbus, he had not seen any single proposal gaining clear traction and that structural fixes would likely come through separate legislative measures rather than the state budget; he also said other urban counties have discussed replicating the model where DTAC-like funds are available.

The chair thanked Grama and CHN staff for outreach efforts and said the committee will receive another quarterly update in July. The presentation closed with no further formal action taken by the committee at that meeting.