Barber outlines rental rehab plan at District 4 town hall
Twenty people attended a town hall meeting for Parkersburg City Council District 4 on Monday at the Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
Ryan Barber, with the Parkersburg Development Department, speaks during a District 4 town hall meeting Monday at the Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd, as City Councilwoman Wendy Tuck listens. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
Twenty people attended a town hall meeting for Parkersburg City Council District 4 on Monday at the Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
Ryan Barber, with the Parkersburg Development Department, speaks during a District 4 town hall meeting Monday at the Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd, as City Councilwoman Wendy Tuck listens. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
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PARKERSBURG -- The day before his confirmation as the city's new development director, Ryan Barber discussed the department's role and fielded questions about a proposed program to fix up rental properties during a town hall meeting.
Councilwoman Wendy Tuck invited Barber to the second monthly town hall meeting in District 4, in part because a public comment period is underway for the plan for the upcoming fiscal year's Community Development Block Grant and HOME Consortium funds.
"We really want people in our neighborhood to know what's going on, how our money's being spent, how decisions are being made," Tuck said.
Barber, who has served as development projects administrator for six years, said the Development Department is involved in areas ranging "from trees to police to sidewalks."
With the HOME Consortium, Parkersburg administers programs to assist first-time home-buyers or bring owner-occupied homes into code compliance in the city, as well as Vienna, Williamstown and Wood County. But with rentals composing 40 percent of the housing units in Parkersburg, the city is looking at ways to assist people who rent homes as well.
The one that drew several questions Monday is the proposed Affordable Housing Leverage Fund, which would offer zero percent or low-interest loans to landlords to improve structures that must be occupied by income-eligible tenants. Rents on those structures must remain affordable, per a federal definition based on the number of bedrooms, for at least five years after the improvements, Barber said.
"So this wouldn't be used to rehab apartments that would rent for $1,300 somewhere?" asked Jeff Fox, a former city councilman.
"Not unless you can find a seven-bedroom apartment," Barber replied.
The HOME budget submitted to Parkersburg City Council, which will also be presented to the councils in Vienna and Williamstown and the Wood County Commission, would allocate $325,911 to the program. It was initially funded in fiscal year 2019-20 with $56,000, but implementation was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Why so much money for something that's brand-new," with regulations still being developed, asked Vienna City Councilwoman Kim Williams, who attended Monday's meeting.
Barber said the amount would allow the program to make a bigger impact.
Williams said the fact that regulations for the program were not finalized put people "at a disadvantage" when commenting on it and asked how rules would be enforced. Barber said the Development Department would monitor the projects.
"I can guarantee the program will be compliant with any federal regulations," he said.
Lisa Doyle-Parsons attended in her capacity as director of the Circles Campaign of the Mid-Ohio Valley and a resident of District 4. When her nonprofit organization assisting families in poverty worked with the department on a project using federal funding, she said, the review process was "very in-depth and well-monitored."
The CDBG and HOME annual action plan is available for review on the city's website at parkersburgcity.com. People can also request that copies be sent to them by mail or email by calling 303-424-8452 or emailing ryan.barber@parkersburgwv.gov.
A public hearing on the plan is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 11, in the executive conference room on the second floor of the Parkersburg Municipal Building. Council is scheduled to vote on the plan at a 7:30 meeting that night. Barber said it must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by the end of that week.