Sec.8-218c-18. Accessibility modification

(a) The Commissioner may provide financial assistance to community housing development corporations which in turn will assist eligible applicants for the purpose of making structural or interior or exterior modifications to any dwelling unit which may be necessary to make the dwelling units accessible to and usable by persons with physical or mental disabilities.

(b) Financial assistance shall be in the form of a grant to be used by the Community Housing Development Corporation to make grants, loans, or deferred loans to eligible applicants.

(c) For purposes of this section, eligible applicants shall be those individuals who meet income limits as set forth below:

For grants, (1) any owner of a single-family or multi-family dwelling whose income does not exceed eighty percent (80%) of the area median income, adjusted for family size, as determined from time to time by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and adjusted for medical expenses; (2) any tenant whose income does not exceed eighty percent (80%) of such area median income, adjusted for family size and medical expenses, and who furnishes satisfactory evidence that the owner of the dwelling in which the tenant resides has approved the intended structural or interior or exterior modifications.

For loans or deferred loans (1) any owner of a single-family or multi-family dwelling unit whose income does not exceed one hundred and fifty percent (150%) of the area median income, adjusted for family size, as determined from time to time by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and adjusted for medical expenses; or (2) any tenant whose income does not exceed one hundred percent (100%) of the area median income, adjusted for family size and medical expenses, and who furnishes satisfactory evidence that the owner of the dwelling in which the tenant resides has approved the intended structural or interior or exterior modifications.

(d) In the absence of sufficient assets, the Commissioner may provide an unsecured loan in an amount not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

(e) Eligible modification costs shall be those accessibility features required by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and any other features which the Commissioner determines are necessary to accommodate persons having physical or mental disabilities.

(Effective August 19, 1992)