HUD grants $1 million to WashCo Housing Authority
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Monday that Washington County Housing Authority will be getting $1,020,577 for improvements at public housing units, and Executive Director Stephen Hall said the money will be used primarily for making five apartments accessible to the disabled.
“The big push is to do wheelchair conversions,” Hall said. Three are to be completed at Valley View Terrace, Canonsburg, and one each at California Terrace and Frederick Terrace, East Bethlehem Township, bringing the authoritywide total to 51.
In addition to building ramps and making other improvements in the converted apartments, the money will be used for security cameras, a computer maintenance agreement and constable patrols in Valley View Terrace in Washington and police patrols in Donora.
The housing authority has two years in which to obligate the money.
The Housing Authority of Greene County will be receiving $349,413 from grants provided through HUD’s Capital Fund Program, which awards funding annually to all public housing authorities to build, repair, renovate and/or modernize the public housing. The authorities use the funding to do large-scale improvements to the housing, such as new roofs, or to make energy-efficient upgrades to replace old plumbing and electrical systems.
Capital fund grants are awarded each year to the nation’s approximately 3,100 public housing agencies through a formula that considers number, type and age of units in a community. Eligible uses for this funding include new roofs, energy-efficient updates to replace old plumbing and electrical systems, development, financing and modernization of the public housing units, as well as management improvements.
In 2011, HUD released Capital Needs in the Public Housing Program, a study that found the nation’s 1.2 million public housing units are facing an estimated $25.6 billion in large-scale repairs.