‘It really helps everybody.’ Programs provide home maintenance support in Roeland Park

Last year, Roeland Park began two programs to help residents cope with the rising cost of living. The programs provide assistance with property taxes and exterior home maintenance.

“This was an objective from our mayor back in 2018 for the 2019 budget. He wanted to address the fact that property taxes in Johnson County keep going up,” said Jennifer Jones-Lacy, assistant city administrator and finance director for Roeland Park.

The tax-related program allows homeowners who qualify to receive a rebate on the city’s portion of their property taxes.

Roeland Park uses guidelines from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to determine who is eligible, based on income. Applicants must provide proof of income as part of the application.

“We want to be able to keep people in their homes, which also supports people aging in place,” Jones-Lacy said. “We want to help people be able to afford to live in the home that they have perhaps lived in for many years.”

It’s open to all ages, as long as applicants are below a certain income threshold. Based on the 2019 guidelines, a family of four would be eligible if its total income was below $40,000, while a person living alone would need a total income of less than $28,000.

Jones-Lacy said six or seven residents who applied qualified for this, each receiving an average of $460 back. Not knowing how many applicants they might have, the city had set aside $15,000 from its general fund in last year’s budget to pay for the program.

Applicants must live in Roeland Park and be up to date on their property tax and special assessments payments.

Another program, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, helps those who qualify to receive assistance with external home maintenance. That can mean trimming trees, clearing yard debris and even painting the outside of a home.

Qualification for this program is based on income, similar to how the property tax rebate works. In the three-tiered system, the highest amount of assistance one can receive from the city is $2,000, then it scales down to $1,000 and $500.

“With the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program, we’re really trying to focus on folks who may have existing code violations … and they have trouble affording repairs,” Jones-Lacy said.

The city allocated $10,000 for the program in its budget last year.

Those receiving assistance get quotes from different businesses and can select the one they want, but if the cost exceeds what the city will pay, the resident does have to pay the remainder.

Roeland Park also contracts with various businesses to do some of the work, but one of the goals is to recruit other residents to volunteer a few hours to help their neighbors. Roeland Park’s building official John Jacobson supervises the volunteers on site.

There’s been a bit of a learning curve for the city in how to use its volunteers.

“We’ve come to realize volunteers can be more helpful when it comes to clearing brush, cleaning up debris, doing weeding. It’s not the (best idea) to have volunteers with no experience in the construction trade scraping potentially hazardous materials like paint, Jones-Lacy said.

In its first year, four Roeland Park families used the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program.

Joan Elliott, who has lived in Roeland Park with her husband since 1984, benefited from the program.

She applied to the program last January and got the call in April that they would help paint her house. The volunteers who came to her home included local residents, elected officials and city staff.

“They were awesome. They were all so friendly,” Elliott said. “We both have retired, so we’re both on a fixed income. Last year, we had to put a new roof and a new furnace in the same month, so we just couldn’t afford to even buy the paint.

“I thought that was just incredible that they were willing to step up and help.”

Elliott said the application process was very simple. Applications for both programs are available at roelandpark.net.

“The exterior maintenance of someone’s home is not typically a high priority for anybody who’s struggling to pay their bills, for sure,” said Jones-Lacy. “By implementing this program, it really helps everybody. It helps the homeowner, but it also elevates the aesthetic of the neighborhood.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 7:00 AM with the headline "‘It really helps everybody.’ Programs provide home maintenance support in Roeland Park."