Imperial County Board of Supervisors sends grant money back to the state

IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA) - At a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, the supervisors voted 4-0 to close out a grant program and return over $500,000 to the state of California.

The grant money was meant to go to a program to help eligible homeowners fix and maintain their houses, and now residents will lose immediate access to benefits such as adding a wheelchair ramp or fixing an AC unit.

Priscilla Lopez, the Director of Workforce and Economic Development said the money was not an unrestricted cash grant, and it came with stipulations.

"Applicants were required to meet federal income requirements. Own and occupy the home, so that means no mortgage," Lopez said during her presentation.

Applicants also had top accept the program's eligibility requirements and agree to pay back the money used for repairs within five years.

Another reason that the program did not get a lot of applicants was because of the lengthy list of requirements, and time is almost up for the money to be used.

"At this stage there is really not enough time to reopen the program or conduct new outreach, and to qualify households, perform the environmental and property reviews, procure the contractors, complete the construction, inspection work, and, and issue the final payment before the deadline, which is August 1," Lopez explained.

A Calipatria resident spoke during public comments, saying that the housing department, as well as other organizations should have been working on this project with the county.

"It would have been a lot smoother if you had the help of the Imperial County Housing Authority. A lot of the things that you didn't understand about ownership of property. Ff you're speaking about the unincorporated areas, ess than 40% of those homes are habitable dwellings according to federal standards," resident William Cooper said.

County officials say there's no way to keep the program open at this time, but they will continue looking for other programs that benefit the community.