McKeesport will seek grant money for the construction of a new home

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

McKeesport council took action last week to apply for a state grant that would be used to build a new home as part of the city’s Cultural District Revitalization Project.

Mayor Michael Cherepko said the city, in conjunction with ACTION Housing Inc., will request a $500,000 grant through the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Fund. 

If approved, the city and ACTION Housing plan to use the money to assist with the costs of constructing a new home near the intersection of Manor Avenue and Cornell Street in the Cultural and Education District near Twin Rivers Elementary School, perform a “rehab-for-resale project” on another home in the district and continue owner-occupied home rehabilitation work in the neighborhood, according to ACTION Senior Development Associate Joe Costa.

Neither Costa, the mayor, nor council offered a projection for when the construction of the second home would begin and end.

Costa said the city unsuccessfully applied for enough PHARE funding in 2017 to construct two new homes near Twin Rivers.

“Unfortunately, we were only awarded enough (in 2017) to construct one new home, but still performed owner-occupied rehab work,” Costa said.

The first new home, located at 1403 Bailie Ave., was sold in August 2019. Some of the proceeds from that sale were used to complete owner-occupied rehabilitation work on five homes.

“We saved the remainder of the sales proceeds to roll into the construction of a second new home and reapplied for PHARE funds last year but were not awarded funds this past round,” Costa said.

He said the city planned to use 2019 and 2020 Allegheny County Affordable Housing Trust Fund grant dollars to build the second home, but “due to extreme increases in building material costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, constructing a new home at this time would not be a cost effective option.”

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