Panama City leaders aim to make housing more affordable - WJHG

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Panama City Commissioners made revisions to the city’s Local Housing Assistance Program connected Tuesday.

“It’s america helping radical to proceed to get successful caller housing,” Panama City Commissioner Jenna Haligas said. “It’s for first-time homebuyers, but it’s besides giving them the accidental to wage their points down, to wage their complaint down.”

Some changes see reducing the lien word from 30 to 15 years and expanding the location purchasing terms to $300,000.

The programme provides down outgo assistance that accrued from $45,000 to $50,000 and closing outgo assistance that accrued from $5,000 to $10,000.

“This is portion of a programme that came station Hurricane Michael,” Panama City Commissioner Josh Street said. “We inactive person astir $4 cardinal to spend. Our extremity is to effort to get this retired the doorway and make arsenic galore first-time location buyers arsenic we can.”

Homeowners successful the programme won’t person to interest astir paying backmost assistance backing awarded to them aft 15 years, either.

This wasn’t the lawsuit before.

“The programme was you had to unrecorded successful the location for 30 years oregon erstwhile you merchantability it, that wealth would spell backmost into the program,” Haligas said.

City officials said the programme besides helps radical physique a information net.

“We privation radical to determination from being renters to homebuyers truthful that they tin truly physique generational wealthiness and go a imperishable portion of our community,” Street said.

The quality to springiness first-time homeowners a cardinal to their caller homes is besides rewarding.

“It’s truly thing for our squad to beryllium astatine the closing array and manus keys implicit to a lawsuit who we’ve worked with for possibly six to 8 months,” Panama City Assistant Manager Jared Jones said.

City leaders expect the $4 cardinal to beryllium utilized wrong the adjacent 18 to 24 months.

Roughly 200 families person utilized the city’s lodging assistance programs since 2019.

You tin sojourn Panama City City Hall astatine 501 Harrison Avenue to use oregon telephone (850) 872-7230 for much information.

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