'People wanna live in a nice place' | Middletown program focuses on revitalization with home repair grants

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — One Tri-State city is hoping to revitalize its neighborhoods with a grant program focused on home repairs.

Middletown resident Karen Mack’s home for the last 20-plus years was starting to deteriorate in some areas. But with a fixed income, she couldn’t afford to make the changes herself.

“I needed my sidewalk repaired for a couple years, and it was just steadily crumbling, crumbling, and you know I was scared that people walking up and down the streets might fall and get hurt,” said Mack.

WATCH: How the Home Repair Improvement Program helped residents like Mack

So when Mack heard about the city's Home Improvement Repair program, she applied.

“I went down there and applied, and it was like, it was just easy,” said Mack.

The program gives residents up to $5,000 to fix exterior home repairs, not including landscaping.

Mack was approved by the program and was able to fix the sidewalk in front of her home and part of her backyard fence.

City of Middletown

Homeowners need to meet a list of qualifications in order to be eligible for the grant money. Those qualifications are the following:

• The property must be located within city limits.
• The property must be an owner-occupied, single-family residence.
• Applicants will need to provide a contractor quote, a copy of deed, a utility bill, and the owner’s name.
• Applicants must be income-qualified based on the 2024 Poverty Guidelines.
• If the property is historical (45 years or older), then it will go to the State Historic Commission for approval on the repair project requested, and an environmental review will be done.
• Applicants must use the grant to bring property into code compliance; and
• Applicants who have received funding in rounds 1 and 2 do not qualify.

Mack says someone like her wouldn’t have been able to afford her repairs without the help from the city.

“People wanna live in a nice place, but they don’t wanna go broke doing it,” said Mack.

Applications for the program are now available online or in the Middletown City Building. The city has $250,000 to put towards this program from the Community Development Block Grants, and will keep applications open until all the money is used.