LAKE PLACID — Adirondack Roots Community Development Director Jennifer Smith presented an update on a grant-funded housing repair assistance program at the North Elba Town Council meeting Tuesday.

North Elba received the $500,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding in December 2021. The program is federally funded through the state’s CDBG program. The funds were allocated to create a housing repair assistance program that will grant loans to local homeowners for home repairs they normally wouldn’t be able to afford. The program was administered by Adirondack Roots, formerly the Housing Assistance Program of Essex County, and was available to residents of North Elba.

Of the $500,000, $460,504 has been dispersed, Smith said. The remaining funds have been spent but have yet to be dispersed due to project delays.

“That money along with some additional money from a different funding agency will be used (to finish the last project),” Smith said.

In December 2021, North Elba received more than 20 applications for CDBG funding and housing repairs. The $500,000 CDBG was ultimately used to rehabilitate four homes and partially contribute to a mobile home replacement. As of Tuesday’s town council meeting, three of the four home rehabilitations were complete. The last home is waiting on some exterior rehabilitation that could not be completed over the winter.

According to Smith, Adirondack Roots received a project completion deadline extension from the state. The fourth home rehabilitation project must be completed by July 1 and is anticipate to meet that deadline.

CDBG funds are available to single-family homeowners who make less than 80% of the area median income. Landlords are also allowed to apply, but in order to be eligible, at least 51% of their units would have to contain households that make less than 80% AMI. The AMI in Essex County is currently $80,100, making 80% AMI $64,080.

The grant is awarded to homeowners in the form of a five-year loan from the town. As long as homeowners don’t move out in those five years, they won’t be responsible for interest charges or monthly payments, and they won’t owe any money at the end of that period. If a homeowner moves before the five year loan period ends, they may be responsible for paying back a portion of the loan.

The funds can be used for necessary repairs and rehabilitation of homes — not cosmetic fixes. On Tuesday, Smith said that the funds have been put to a variety of uses, depending on the home and its needs. Some of the repairs done with CDBG funds include lead paint and asbestos testing and remediation, attic insulation, siding repair, new window or roof installation, stair replacement, chimney removal and electricity updates.

The mobile home replacement is “mostly complete,” according to Smith, who said the family has been living in their new mobile home since around Christmas.

Town Councilor Emily Kilburn Politi — who also sits on the board of Adirondack Roots — later added that the mobile home replacement was on the Saranac Lake side of North Elba, as only mobile home residents who own the land their home sits upon are eligible for CDBG funds. Most mobile home residents in Lake Placid do not own their land, she said.

Adirondack Roots works with low- to moderate-income families in Essex, Hamilton and Franklin counties to improve their housing situations. Applications for housing assistance can be picked up at Adirondack Roots’s Elizabethtown office or at the North Elba Town Hall in Lake Placid. They’re also available on line at adirondackroots.org.

Other municipalities in the Tri-Lakes region have recently received CDBG funding.

Last December, Essex County received $1.25 million to replace manufactured homes. Adirondack Roots and PRIDE of Ticonderoga will co-administer that grant. The town of Moriah also received $262,195. In 2022, the town of Jay received a $298,320 CDBG last year to make accessibility improvements to the town’s community center and replace a diesel generator with a propane generator.