Dougherty County launches ‘Restore Dougherty’ housing program

ALBANY – Dougherty County officially launched “Restore Dougherty” on Monday, a county-based housing recovery program to help eligible county homeowners who experienced home damage during the 2017 tornado, 2017 straight-line winds, and Hurricane Irma, and who continue to have unmet recovery needs.

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) received a direct Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery award from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dougherty County accepted a federal sub-award from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs as a sub-recipient to carry out a portion of this federal award. The funding for the Restore Dougherty program is derived from this federal CDBG-DR award.

The “Restore Dougherty” program will assist with housing repair, rehabilitation, reconstruction and replacement of stick-built, modular homes and manufactured housing units. Determinations will be made on whether a property will be rehabbed, reconstructed or be replaced according to damage inspections.

The “Restore Dougherty” program will serve only households with incomes less than 120 percent of area median income. However, households with less than 80 percent AMI will be prioritized. The income calculation includes the annual adjusted gross income of all adult household members, including earnings and in-kind sources like Social Security and pensions. Case managers will use HUD’s Income Eligibility Calculator to determine if the income of the applicant’s household is eligible.

The “Restore Dougherty” program eligibility threshold requirements, which must be met for a homeowner to be eligible for assistance are:

♦ The property has unrepaired damages due to the 2017 presidentially declared disasters;

♦ The damaged property is located within one of the HUD identified Most Impacted and Distressed areas;

♦ The homeowner can show proof of ownership at the time the disaster occurred, and ownership has been maintained to date;

♦ The damaged structure is the homeowner’s primary place of residence;

♦ The property taxes are current, or a payment plan is in place;

♦ The property is a single-family, owner-occupied structure or an owner-occupied mobile home/manufactured housing unit;

♦ The property is not a second home;

♦ The damaged property must be in the 31701, 31705 and 31707 ZIP codes.

Due to funding constraints under the “Restore Dougherty” program, priority will be given to at-risk and vulnerable households. Households with one of the following characteristics will be prioritized and processed in the order their applications were completed:

♦ Low- to moderate-income

♦ households;

♦ Households with seniors age 62 and older;

♦ Households with children age 18 or younger;

♦ Households with the presence of members with a disability.

All priorities are weighted equally and will not be allowed to overlap. For a period of 45 days, only applications from prioritized households will be processed. During this period, non-prioritized households may apply, but non-priority applications will not be processed until after the initial priority intake period has ended. To comply with federal requirements, 70 percent of program funds must be used to serve low- to moderate-income individuals.

The first step in the “Restore Dougherty” program homeowners should take is to complete the pre-application, which can be found online at https://forms.albanyga.gov/Forms/rehabapp, or pick up a paper copy of the pre-application on the first floor of the County Government Administration Building. The paper version of the pre-application should be returned to the Dropbox located at 125 Pine Ave. or to the first floor reception desk in the Government Center at 222 Pine Ave. Once the pre-applications are evaluated, applicants will be contacted by phone and in writing regarding any next steps. For questions, call the Restore Dougherty hotline at (229) 302-3450.

For more information, visit Dougherty.ga.us/RestoreDougherty.

File Photo: Christopher Mardorf