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Assessor outlines HOPE tax-exemption outreach as residents press council on water, ARPA and public-safety grants
Summary
City Assessor Stacy Bassie described a county and legal-services outreach plan to expand the HOPE homeowners property-tax exemption (50% reduction), while multiple residents used public comment to say Flint's water remains unsafe and urged transparency on ARPA funds and service-line replacement.
City Assessor Stacy Bassie told the Flint City Council on Feb. 9 that the HOPE homeownership property-tax exemption will expand outreach to help eligible low-income homeowners apply and receive up to a 50% reduction in property taxes.
"It gives them a 50% break on their property taxes," Bassie said, describing a grant-funded partnership with Rocket Community Fund and Legal Services of Eastern Michigan that places two outreach staff — one in Genesee County and one at legal services — to help residents complete applications. Bassie said the city is using an eligibility threshold of 200% of the federal poverty guidelines and that last year more than 200 applications were received; she said the program aims to reach roughly 300 applicants this cycle.
Bassie told councilmembers the outreach team will visit senior centers and public locations and that joint press releases with the county and legal services will publicize the effort. She said city staff can also assist residents who come to city offices.
Residents who spoke during the public-comment period pressed the council on water safety, ARPA transparency, and services for homelessness and opioid recovery. Several commenters, including Audrey Muhammed, said their household water is not safe and described health problems and personal expense for filtration systems.
"The water is not safe in Flint for us to drink, consume, or use," Muhammed said, adding that she maintains whole-house filtration and reverse-osmosis systems and continues to have skin reactions.
Council members responded by urging accuracy in public messaging about test results and by committing to seek additional public-facing clarification from testing partners. Several members asked staff to provide ARPA account details, including interest accrued since 2021, at the next finance meeting. A councilmember also asked that the deputy DPW director be scheduled to brief the council on the status and percent-complete of service-line and pipe replacement projects.
On public-safety funding, councilmembers discussed a proposed Genesee Auto Interface Network (GAIN) autotheft grant of roughly $41,681 with a city match of about $71,000. Police staff said the program typically funds one full-time investigator locally while leveraging nine participating agencies in the regional partnership; council requested historic outcomes and the number of stolen vehicles for context and asked for that data by Monday.
The meeting included a series of procedural votes: the council added a 15-minute audit update to the special affairs agenda (8-0) but tied on a motion to add a Brownell/Brill water-testing discussion (4-4) and later voted to forward Resolution 260038 to full council (7-0). The consent agenda passed (8-0). The meeting adjourned at 6:27 p.m.
Next steps recorded in the meeting: staff were asked to return ARPA ledger and service-line progress details to finance; police were asked to provide autotheft statistics; and the council scheduled a 15-minute audit update for the special order section of an upcoming meeting.
