CHAMBERSBURG – Luminest Community Development, Inc., has been awarded $350,000 from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency to continue its home rehabilitation program. Luminest administers an owner-occupied home rehabilitation program on behalf of Franklin County called Whole Home Repair.
Through Whole Home Repair, Luminest provides start-to-finish assistance to the homeowner from the initial application to project completion. The projects make the homes more energy efficient, habitable and accessible by replacing roofs, windows and water heaters, upgrading plumbing and electrical systems, improving bathrooms, steps and porches, and installing ramps.
“We wish to express our appreciation to Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for the award of this grant, and to Sen. Doug Mastriano, Reps. Rob Kauffman, Chad Reichard and Rich Ervin, and Franklin County Commissioners Dean Horst (chairman), John Flannery and Bob Ziobrowski for their critical support in obtaining this grant,” said Dave Keller, executive director of Luminest.
Luminest receives the application from the homeowner, verifies their income, performs a home inspection, creates a work scope, prepares the bid documents, assists in selecting a qualified contractor, inspects the work during specific benchmarks of the project and closes out the job by ensuring the homeowner is satisfied with the work and has warranties and contact information in hand.
The grant funds will become available next year just as Luminest will be wrapping up the initial grant that established the Whole Home Repair program. So far, Luminest has completed 15 projects, eight more are in process, and approximately 20 more are under development. To date, $452,053 has been spent on completed projects, and about $650,000 remains to be spent on projects in process or under development. The additional grant funds will allow Luminest to complete approximately 12 more projects.
All eligible program participants must own their homes and have incomes at or below 80 percent of area median income. In Franklin County, 80 percent of AMI is $61,150 for a two-person household. So far, most of the participants have been senior citizens, and their homes have been spread out across Franklin County: Borough of Chambersburg (5), Greene Township (1), Guilford Township (5), Hamilton Township (1), Metal Township (1), Montgomery Township (1), Quincy Township (1), the Borough of Shippensburg (1), Washington Township (3), the Borough of Waynesboro (4), and Southampton Township (1).
The general contractors who have partnered with Luminest through Whole Home Repair so far are Mighty Dog Roofing, Waynesboro; Innovative Kitchen & Flooring, Chambersburg; Mowery Construction, Mechanicsburg; Henicle Plumbing, Waynesboro; C&J Roofing, Chambersburg; Prestige Renovations, Owings Mills, Maryland; Zeiset Painting & Exteriors, Chambersburg; JD Builder, Doylesburg; Family Roots Construction, East Freedom; Mann Plumbing & Heating, Fayetteville.
Franklin County Commissioners have identified housing as an important focus area in its comprehensive plan, “Imagine Franklin 2035.” Per a survey of 1,500 county residents, 78 percent of respondents said that the improvement of existing housing stock to meet the needs of households today is important to them.
Per the American Community Survey 2013-2017, the median year built for owner-occupied homes in Franklin County was 1978, which makes the average home age 46.
In addition to running the Whole Home Repair program for Franklin County, Luminest owns and manages seven properties across Franklin, Adams and Cumberland counties with over 300 townhomes and apartments for low to moderate income families and senior citizens.
Luminest’s most recent development is Citrus Grove, a 40-unit apartment community for senior citizens in downtown Shippensburg. Later this year, Luminest will break ground on another 40-unit apartment community for seniors in Adams County, just north of the Borough of Gettysburg in Cumberland Township.
Luminest also runs a First Time Home Buyer program and a housing rehabilitation program for the Borough of Chambersburg.
Luminest Community Development, Inc., formerly Valley Community Housing, started in July 2002 as a non-profit startup to develop affordable homes in Franklin County. Luminest’s board of directors envisioned building stronger neighborhoods, better homes and brighter futures. Luminest achieves those goals with each new development, home rehabilitation or new home construction for first-time home buyers.
