Citizen’s Opportunity for Development & Equality Inc. has several programs to assist homeowners in renovating their property.

Patrick Morris, CODE executive director, said one of these programs is an owner-occupied rehabilitation program, which they received $200,000 for from the state last spring. He said most of the money went toward renovating houses located in the city. He added this was the first time they did the program, which helped 12 homeowners, and they will be applying for additional state funding.

”We did it as a pilot project to make sure we could do it and we did it well. It was a two-year grant and we completed the work in six months,” he said. ”We applied for more funding to assist a few more units, and we want to keep doing this. We applied for an additional $400,000 and we won’t hear about (whether we receive the funding) until spring.”

Morris said CODE will also be applying for $100,000 in funding to help people purchase homes to renovate. He said they won’t know about the funding until next spring.

”We are trying to bring more owner-occupied housing to the city,” he said. ”We want to bring more of this kind of money into the city. We think it is important to stabilize owner-occupied homes to make sure things don’t leak and we don’t have fires. We don’t do cosmetic work. It has to be a structure (problem) or a code violation.”

Morris said they also have $50,000 in funding remaining from a program to help disabled people on Medicaid with accessibility modifications to their homes. He said tenants who rent are eligible for the funding, but landlords are not. He added it is the only program they are involved in that can help non-homeowners.

CODE will continue to work with city officials on an emergency repair program, Morris said. He said with help from city Community Development Block Grant funding, they can assist homeowners with emergency repairs. He added the program is aimed toward senior citizens to help them stay in their homes.

”Our goal is to help stabilize homeownership to keep houses owner-occupied instead of becoming rentals. Part of that is by keeping houses in good shape,” he said.

For more information about the housing rehabilitation programs, contact CODE by calling 664-2044. CODE is located at 411 Winsor St., Jamestown.