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Brook Park makes home‑repair grant permanent, council removes $50,000 cap
Summary
Mayor Orcutt presented changes to the Home Maintenance Assistance Grant Program to make it a standing program and to set household eligibility at 80% of Cleveland MSA AMI; council voted to remove a $50,000 cap and placed the amended ordinance on tonight’s council agenda, later adopting it as Order 11531‑2026.
Mayor Kevin Orcutt asked the council to make the Brook Park Home Maintenance Assistance Grant Program (HMAP) a permanent ordinance and to update income eligibility to 80% of area median income for the Cleveland MSA as defined by HUD, saying the change would allow more homeowners to apply.
The program, Orcutt said, is a 50/50 matching grant for eligible exterior repairs — ‘‘front porch and patios, gutters, paint for exterior, roofs, windows, furnace or boilers…driveways, the repair or replacement of siding, exterior doors, and garage doors’’ — but not air conditioning. He outlined eligibility examples from Exhibit A, noting that for a one‑person household 80% AMI equates to about $4,812 per month (roughly $57,750 annually). Orcutt also summarized last year’s results: 151 applications, eight projects approved and about $74,598 in project work with the city covering roughly half.
Councilmembers pressed staff on funding and the mechanics of the income schedule. Councilman Poindexter asked whether the ordinance itself would set a fixed dollar amount; the mayor and law/finance staff said the ordinance would make the program permanent but funding would be provided only by council appropriation each budget year and the income guidelines would be set as of the date an application is received.
Councilman Gonzales moved to strike the ordinance language that read ‘‘not to exceed $50,000,’’ saying removing a fixed cap would allow the city to appropriate more in future budgets if money becomes available. The motion to remove the $50,000 ceiling was seconded and passed on a roll call. Council then voted to place the amended ordinance on the regular council agenda under item M2 for first reading.
Later in the meeting council suspended the rules and adopted the ordinance as Order 11531‑2026. The adoption passed on a roll call vote and the program will be implemented consistent with the ordinance text and with appropriations made by city council each year.
Implementation details and clarifications in the caucus included that the income guideline amounts will be established by the HUD/Cleveland MSA schedule as of an application’s receipt date, and that the program applies to owner‑occupied homes in the city’s target areas (not commercial properties or apartments). Mayor Orcutt said residents are already waiting to start projects if the program continues.
The council did not set a fixed annual appropriation in the ordinance; future funding levels will be determined through the annual budget process. The measure takes effect immediately under the emergency language adopted with the order.
