Housing Trust Fund can help with furnace replacement

MARENGO — East Central Iowa Housing Trust Fund has received funding to help low-income residents replace furnaces and water heaters.

Tracey Achenbach, East Central Iowa Housing Trust Fund executive director, said Wednesday that she’d asked the state for more money for the low-income owner-occupied rehab program, but she also requested additional funds for appliance replacement.

To qualify for funds to repair a house, homeowners must make less then 80% of the median income in the state, which would be about $52,800 for a single person and $67,000 for a three-person family, said Achenbach.

The Housing Trust Fund has enough money to help about 12 homeowners with repairs of about $15,000, but it has a waiting list, Achenbach said.

In that program, East Central Iowa Housing Trust Fund sends an inspector to tell the homeowner what repairs are needed, and the Trust Fund helps find a contractor and pays the contractor directly, said Achenbach.

The emergency repair program is for lower incomes -- just over $19,00 for a single person and $25,820 for a three-person household.

“But they just approved some funding to make available to people for furnaces or hot water heaters, and a limited amount for frozen pipes remediation,” said Achenbach,

That program will help replace furnaces and water heaters for a single homeowner with an income of $39,660 or below and three-person households of up to $51,000.

“We would deal with the contractor. And then we pay the contractor,” said Auchenbach. Money is not given directly to the homeowner.

The program doesn’t ask for a match from the homeowner, but if the cost is more than the Trust Fund has, the homeowner might have to make up the difference.

Home owners interested in the program should contact Mark Culver at East Central Iowa Council of Governments at 319-289-0061 or at mark.culver@ecicog.org.

There’s no deadline, said Auchenbach, “but we have a limited amount of money that we can spend on the entire program.”

East Central Iowa Housing Trust Fund serves Benton, Iowa, Jones and Washington Counties.

The board of directors consists of Kate Roberson, with Benton Development Group; Tracy Seeman, Benton County Supervisors; Laura Sauser, Iowa Community Development; Chris Montross, Iowa County Supervisor; Derek Lumsden, Jones County Economic Development; Jon Zirkelback, Jones County Board of Supervisors Secretary; Bob Yoder, Washington County Board of Supervisors; and Mary Audia, Washington County Economic Development.