SitemapCity council will consider legislation Wednesday to spend $8 million in American Rescue Plan funds on building new houses and rehabilitating existing ones in Youngstown. Also on Wednesday’s agenda are requests to have the board of control spend up to $800,000 in ARP money to hire multiple consultants for design work on city parks as well as a second effort to spend up to $2 million to repair the roof on the city-owned Covelli Centre and a seventh attempt to seek proposals for a city-run ambulance feasibility study. The $8 million request represents nearly 10% of the city’s total $82,775,370 ARP allocation.
The legislation states the money “will be used to support and facilitate the city’s housing strategy, which is built around a framework that includes new housing construction and rehabilitation of homes throughout the city. Execution of the strategy is based upon development-ready parcels and continuous stretches of land holdings owned by the city of Youngstown, city land bank, Mahoning County Land Bank and the Youngstown City School District.” It adds: “Housing development efforts will also include a comprehensive assessment of all seven wards to identify specific and unique housing expansion needs, commercial opportunities and environmental readiness of potential development sites.”
Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward and chairman of the community planning and economic development committee, said: “The focus is on building new affordable homes all over the city. I support this, and I hope my colleagues do, too. Demolitions of old, vacant houses are great, but it leaves empty neighborhoods. It’s good to put money into building the city. It will pull more people back into the city from the suburbs.” The effort will be handled through the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning Valley, Oliver said.
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