RUMFORD — Grant coordinator Phil Blampied answered questions Thursday night from selectmen and about 20 people about the Community Development Block Grant Housing Assistance Program grant.

“It’s going to be a first-come, first-served basis, based on need,” he said. “If somebody needed a paint job on their porch and somebody else was living in conditions that were dangerous, the dangerous conditions get done first.”

The $300,000 grant will be administered by Community Concepts.

Blampied said several people who previously notified Community Concepts seeking help with grant funds are on a contact list. People who own low- to moderate-income housing can still apply for funding help though.

“When the money is available to us — when the state finally tells us we can start the program — Community Concepts will contact all of these people and invite them to pick up the application packet,” he said.

That packet, which is quite complex, is available at the town office, he said.

Blampied said people fill out the application packet before the housing rehabilitation technician meets with the property owners and reviews their situation. Simultaneously, the grant administrator will do income certifications to ensure it’s all low- to moderate-income property.

Next, Community Concepts meets with the property owner, the scope of work is decided, and the bidding process gets under way.

“It doesn’t happen quickly,” Blampied said.

“So there’s a bidding process involved?” Selectman Greg Buccina asked. “The owner of the building just can’t pick a contractor?”

“No,” Blampied said. “They have to bid the work. The property owners themselves can contribute their own labor and that can be considered a part of their match, but they can’t be compensated for it. They’re not going to get any grant money for hiring somebody else,” he said.

“All the work that’s done is bid out and the contractors have to meet all federal standards,” he said.

Additionally, Blampied said owners of properties with liens on them or under foreclosure by banks, cannot apply for grant funds.

Selectman Jolene Lovejoy asked if there are any guarantees that prevent a property owner from using $50,000 from the grant to rehabilitate a house, and then automatically put it on the market.

Blampied said $30,000 is the maximum they can use, unless there’s an emergency.

“One of the requirements on property owners, which caused some people on the list to drop out because they don’t want to do this, they have to accept a lien on their property that if they sold the property within 12 months, they would repay the cost of the project at 100 percent,” Blampied said.

The lien is self liquidating. It goes out in five years.

“If you sell the house the second year after the project gets done, you’re going to have to pay 80 percent,” and so on, he said.

That penalty money goes back to Community Concepts and gets rededicated to housing rehabilitation work in Rumford.

He said projects must be housing rehabilitation only. The grant money can’t be used for acquisitions and demolition.

Asked when the money will be available, Blampied said selectmen must sign documents of certification, which they did Thursday night during their regular meeting.

Those documents, Blampied said, will be sent out by priority mail, and within a few weeks the state will give the go-ahead.

Community Concepts will go through the intake phase probably through September, he said.  Inspections will probably happen in October and the work would be done next spring or summer, unless it can be started before snow falls.

Blampied said Community Concepts will send direct mailings to people who are already on the contact list seeking help, and they are also accepting new applications.

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