High Point officials scratching their heads trying to figure out why nobody is taking advantage of a city program that provides up to $7,500 in city loans to help those purchasing homes in the 11-square-mile core city:
Councilman Jeff Golden said from what he hears, many in the community apparently don’t know about the program.
He and other city leaders find this perplexing because the loans are available to anyone who qualifies for a mortgage on a house in the core worth less than $200,000.
The committee discussed tweaking the program to encourage more city employees to move to the core city.
Options include offering no-interest, forgivable loans.
“We need to get more middle-income people living in the core city, coming back trying to renovate existing housing stock,” said Deputy City Manager Randy McCaslin. “There is a lot of good housing stock there that needs to be renovated, and this is one way of trying to encourage people to do that.”
Don’t worry HP officials —-the Obama administration is on this. As for addressing “food insecurity” within the core city— well, they’re trying to figure out just how much liability insurance a community garden should carry.
