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Sacramento to launch home repair program that gives $15K to eligible households for needed repairs

The Justice for Neighbors Emergency Home Repair Program gives eligible households who may qualify up to $15,000 in one-time funding to complete needed repairs.

SACRAMENTO, Calif — The Justice for Neighbors Emergency Home Repair Program, which was approved by the Sacramento City Council about two weeks ago, is about to be launched.

“The Justice for Neighbors [Emergency] Home Repair Pilot Program is made possible due to a partnership between the city of Sacramento attorney's office and code enforcement and Habitat for Humanity coming together,” said Leah Miller, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento. “Through this investment, we're going to be able to help homeowners in the city and assist them with critical health and safety repairs, which if left unaddressed, could result in displacement further down the road.”

According to the city, over $500,000 was approved for the program. Eligible households could qualify for up to $15,000 in one-time funding to complete needed repairs.

“This pilot program layers on to our already really successful home preservation program, through which we've completed about 200 repairs over the last couple of years helping seniors and veterans and other under-resourced homeowners in our community,” said Miller.

Where is the money coming from?

Michael Benner, senior deputy city attorney for the Sacramento City Attorney's Office, says the funds for this pilot program are coming from the Justice for Neighbors program.

“It's basically a task force made up of multiple departments within the city, whose mission it is to address the worst nuisance properties within the city of Sacramento,” said Benner. “You know, rundown apartment buildings and houses and commercial buildings. And when the city attorney's office is forced to file legal action against those properties to bring them into compliance, any fines and penalties we collect from those nuisance properties are put into what's called the 'JFN Fund.'”

He says typically, that JFN Fund has been used for officer training equipment, that's all used to address the social nuisances that occur in the neighborhoods.

“We thought, 'Hey, wouldn't it be great if we could give back to the community a little bit and create this program whereby homeowners or low-income homeowners could apply for funding to fix properties in the city of Sacramento?' Because those small problems sometimes bloom into big problems, right?” said Benner.

He said officials hope by using a little bit of the fund at the outset to stop the problems from getting worse, that it's actually going to help the city of Sacramento in the long run dealing with these kinds of properties.

How can the money be used?

Jose Mendes, Code Enforcement manager for the city of Sacramento, says as of now, people can call 311 or visit 311.cityofsacramento.org, and the information is provided about the program.

As for what the money can be used for, Mendes listed the following:

“One would be something like a nonfunctional heating unit, a substandard leaking roof, a new roof, any kind of interior damage to the walls or supporting walls,” he said. “Any issues with sewage systems or not being able to properly dispose of any sewer systems, a lack of running water or lack of hot water, leaking plumbing, electrical issues, that's just some kind of an idea of issues that would qualify.”

Who is eligible to take advantage of this program? 

According to the city, to qualify for the Emergency Home Repair Program, households must:

  • Have a gross annual income at or below 80% of the local area median income. In California, for a one-person household that is $59,750 per year. Two-person household: $68,300. Three-person household: $76,850. Four-person: $85,400. More household sizes can be found under California, "Low Income" HERE.

  • Be a single-family home and owner-occupied household;

  • Have code violations that would qualify it as a Substandard or Dangerous Building pursuant to the Sacramento City Code.

“The beauty of this is that we can say hey, homeowner, you have code violations that need to be addressed, apply for this grant program, and it's money that they don't have to pay back,” said Mendes. “It's money that if they qualify, they can then apply to make those repairs.”

The city adds Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento will serve as the general contractor on all approved repair projects.

The program officially launches on June 1, 2023.

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