Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk presents at public hearing (May 15, 2023)

A public hearing has been held on reallocating $225,000 in previous years HOME program funds to a First Time Homebuyers Assistance Program.

Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said funds allocated in the 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Annual Action Plans had not been fully spent in those years and an amendment to those action plans would allow the department to combine those funds for another program, “This funding will go to one of our Community Housing Development organizations, CHRIC, for the First Time Homebuyers Program that they currently administer. This is a great way for us to be able to spend those funds that we certainly don’t want to see go to waste and there’s definitely a need. CHRIC is ready to go.”

Surdyk said Chautauqua Home Rehabilitation and Improvement Corporation has applicants in their program waiting for funding and that U.S. Housing and Urban Development has supported CHRIC’s program in the past. She said CHRIC would retain an additional $500 per recipient for administrative costs.

The $225,000 would provide $4,000 to an estimated 50 low-to moderate-income first time homebuyers between 2023 and 2026.

Surdyk said the homebuyers would use the funds as gap funding, “It helps with down payment and closing costs. It also requires its participants to participate in a program that lasts over, I believe, nine weeks. They learn all of the basics of being a homeowner, responsibilities that they have as a homeowner.”

Surdyk said homebuyers sign an anti-speculation agreement that they won’t sell their home for five years, or risk having to pay back funding they’ve received.

She said there is about $1 million total in unexpended HOME funds. City Deputy Director of Housing Policy and Development Kasie Foulk said the Department of Development just learned that Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME monies not expended in previous years could have the action plans amended to reallocate the funds for existing or new programs.

Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency Board meets (December 14, 2022)

The Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency Board has approved the agency’s 2023 budget which includes two additional personnel.

The $1.4 million budget includes the creation of a Compliance Manager position as well as the hiring of an additional Target Area Code Enforcement Officer.

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said U.S. Housing and Urban Development recommended the creation of the position, “We’re calling it a Compliance Manager because it really is.. we don’t see it as just being HUD. We are looking at it as a position that would manage all of our HUD grants, our Federal grants, any state grants we get. For all of those different types of grants there’s always some level of administration that has to go with them, there’s reporting back. HUD is probably the big example.”

Surdyk said HUD has done several monitorings of the Department of Development over the last couple years as they hadn’t done one in 15 years, “They did a series of monitorings on our financial management, processes and procedures, HOME program, CDBG. They actually monitored us twice for HOME, which was an anomoly, and our CHDOs which is our Community Housing Development Organization program that is sort of a side project out of HOME.”

She added that the HUD monitoring is standard procedure and wasn’t punitive or disciplinary in nature.

Surdyk said the new Code Enforcement Officer will be funded through Community Development Block Grant funds from HUD. She said the current Code Enforcement Officers are over-burdened and struggling to keep up, “We do have some additional grants that we are partnering with other agencies on. And those grants are utilizing our Code Enforcement Officers and their experience and what they do on a daily basis. And in that partnership, one of them in particular is the Healthy Homes Production Grant that’s with the County.”

She said DOD will receive administrative funds from that partnership.

The addition of the position will bring the total number of Code Enforcement Officers in the Department of Development to four.

Surdyk said the over $300,000 increase in the 2023 budget from 2022 can be mainly attributed to increased staffing and staffing costs. Aside from the new positions approved in the budget, JURA also is now contributing to the cost of the shared Grant Writer position and the Associate Corporation Counsel position, the latter which had previously been funded through a