At last week’s Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors meeting, Jerry Davis, Executive Director of the Northern Neck Planning District Commission, paid a visit, bringing along plans for securing a $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant to restore a number of homes.

Some time ago, the County, with help from the Northern Neck Planning District Commission, received a planning grant from the Department of Housing & Community Development through the Community Development Block Grant program that allowed them to conduct a county-wide housing assessment. The idea was to eventually conduct a housing rehab project, something that has taken place in the Northern Neck several times over the years.

“We worked with a management team that had been appointed by the County to help us identify housing units throughout Westmoreland that appeared, at least from the road, to be substandard,” said Davis. “Your team did a good job and brought us over two hundred housing units that they thought may meet that definition. We plotted those onto a map, and then drove through the County, looking at those housing units to get our perspective on what was selected.

“As we were doing that, we were looking for a project that would score high and meet the program objectives. We were looking for houses that appeared substandard, were probably occupied by low- to moderate-income persons, and houses that were clustered together,” he explained.

They located a spot that fit the bill in the Jerusalem Church Road and Tavern Run Road area. A public meeting was held by the NNPDC to see if there was any interest in making this happen, and there was quite a bit, according to Davis.

During that meeting, residents were asked if, were the program offered, they would allow the NNPDC staff to meet with them one-on-one and get their financial information, which would allow the NNPDC to determine overall financial eligibility and conduct indoor housing inspections.

“We inspected thirteen housing units so far and got their financial eligibility. Before we selected those thirteen, we were able to rule some out because their incomes might be too high, or they don’t have ownership of the property.”

With the information in hand, nine households were identified as being able to be put into a Community Development Block Grant application, which would function as a housing rehabilitation application. The guidelines for this were released only a couple of months ago.

Compared to last year, the amount of grant money that can be requested has been increased to $1.5 million, as has the limit on how much can be spent on each dwelling—now up to $175,000 per dwelling. However, the grant money for a housing rehab project cannot be used on infrastructure issues, which require a separate grant application.

“The bottom line is we had a recommendation for you in the form of the Jerusalem Church Road Housing Rehabilitation Project,” continued Davis. “Of those nine dwellings, three are mobile homes beyond rehab and will be demolished while the other six will be rehabbed.”

Supervisor Darryl Fisher, whose district contains the project area, voiced his ready support, noting that these block grant projects for rehabbing houses were nothing new for the County.

“Mr. Hynson and I have done a number of these projects over the years we’ve been together from one end of the County to another. I believe that any time we can enter into a project to rehab or improve the standard of living for even one person, we should pursue the grant. I wish the criteria would allow us to fund ten, fifteen, or even twenty houses, but that’s just not the case.

“People were enthusiastic about the content of the project, and I wanted to thank Mr. Davis and his staff for the great presentation— answering our questions and then moving quickly to get this running,” Fisher noted. “You want to strike while the iron is hot, and this may be a favorable application with a choice of moving forward.”

Supervisor Woody Hynson also voiced support for the grant, as did Supervisor Matt Ingram, who noted, “Any time we can help the community out will make us all better.”

Bay Turner, a county resident, was one of the few people to speak during the public hearing, voicing her enthusiasm at the County doing a number of projects.

“We had a lot of good discussion,” stated Turner. “I’m really proud and thankful. The inspections were even free. I am willing to do anything I can, and I’ve told people in the community that I’ll help them fill their paperwork out.”

The Board accepted the application, which will trigger the next step of the process for the grant application.