Housing Consortium hosting public hearing

The Surry County Housing Consortium (SCHC) has planned a public hearing to receive comments from residents on their 2024-2025 Annual Action Plan.

The group said the purpose of the Annual Action Plan is to specify how the SCHC will address housing and community needs for the use of the HOME Investment Partnerships Program.

The meeting will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 31, at the Historic Courthouse, Room 136, at 114 W. Atkins Street in Dobson.

For the coming fiscal year, the group said they are anticipating $545,657 in HOME funds and the public hearing will allow residents to hear the group’s plan and offer an opinion as the Annual Action Plan is subject to revision.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program “provides grants to states and localities, often in partnership with local nonprofit groups, to fund a wide range of activities. Those range from building, buying, or rehabilitating affordable housing or providing direct rental assistance to low-income people.”

According to HUD, the HOME program is the largest federal block grant to state and local governments designed exclusively to create affordable housing for low-income households. The program’s flexibility allows states and local governments to use HOME funds for grants, direct loans, loan guarantees, other forms of credit enhancements, rental assistance or security deposits.

The Piedmont Triad Regional Council administers the HOME Investment Partnership Program for the Surry County Housing Consortium which also has Stokes, Yadkin, and Davie Counties as members of a subset of the 12 counties served by the regional council.

PTRC said they are allotted funding federal funding annually and the Consortium Council coordinates the Annual Action Plan to allocate funds for the following year based on submitted proposals. They explained, “HOME funds can be used for home repair or construction, direct homebuyer assistance or direct rental assistance.”

Surry County Board of Commissioners Vice Chair Mark Marion, who is the board’s liaison to SCHC, wanted to ensure the public knew they could attend the meeting, “This is one of our quarterly meetings and the public is always invited to attend.”

“SCHC is made up of the four counties and we have a committee that is in all those counties, and they bring in projects to see if we can approve them,” Marion said. “Surry, Stokes, Yadkin, and Davie counties have beaucoup funds, thousands of dollars that have not been spent.”

“We go around and most of the time, we’re looking at one county during one meeting and one county at another, but it all mingles in together and the PTRC has their oversight role.”

Funds can be allotted to numerous different types of projects, “It’s for housing projects and that can mean apartments, affordable house, and things like that.”

“Also, we do single home projects like for the elderly or low-income folks. They can get allotted some money to get their house fixed up and have a contractor go in and tell us how much it will cost — and the consortium will pay for it. But they are under an obligation for ten years to stay in the home. If they sell or move out, the work that was done is prorated and they will have to pay back a portion of it.”

He said that with a funding stream just for the coming year of over half a million, a lot of renovation projects could be accomplished.

Marion said that in the upcoming year’s budget, “Your Father’s House on Zephyr Road is designated and so is Shepherd’s House. If they start a men’s shelter, they will get funding for the construction of it.”

Being selected for funding does not always mean the Golden Ticket has arrived though. Marion noted that previously approved federal funding for Your Father’s House was held up, “They had to stop remodeling work that they were doing for their 501c3 . The money was approved but has been held up for some reason.”

The long-term housing shortage in Surry County cannot be remedied quickly by one set of grant funding. However, Marion said that the funds are helping a variety of projects like the New Hope, New Beginnings home on Rawley Ave. in Mount Airy where Carl Singletary has been working to renovate an existing home into a transitional home for men — something in short supply currently.

Marion did not disclose their locations but said he and Keith Kiger of Surry County Inspections had recently been taken on a tour of one of the other homes Singletary has renovated and opened in Surry County. Singletary’s efforts are not going unnoticed even though he has been wrapped in some red-tape Marion said, “He’s a really good guy and he’d been there and done that. He is trying to do good, but his hands have been tied a little bit.”