New Hope Offers Variety of Home Improvement Assistance Programs

If you are looking to spruce up your front yard or do some home remodeling in New Hope, first check in with the City Hall.

“New Hope has a wide variety of residential assistance programs that are intended to help people make improvements to their homes and upgrades to their homes,” said Community Development Specialist Jeff Alger.

Homes in New Hope.

Alger says the city’s Curbside Appeal Reimbursement Program helps homeowners make improvements to their home’s exterior like replacing the front door or garage door, adding columns or brick accents, or doing bigger projects.

“If you are looking to make improvements to the appearance of your house,”says Alger, “Such as adding a front porch, or a front stoop, or you are altering your roof-line and adding a second floor, or something along those lines, those are all major projects that would be eligible.”

Under the program, homeowners can receive a max reimbursement of $5,000 dollars.

Home Improvement Loan Programs

New Hope partners with the Center for Energy and Environment to offer a couple of loan programs.

The first, is an emergency energy deferred loan worth between $1,000 and $5,000 dollars.

“So, say you have obviously an emergency and your furnace goes out,” said Alger. “And you are not eligible for any other loan programs, this potentially could be a program that would help pay for your furnace, if you are at or below the area medium income.”

The second loan program offers a low interest loan, at either 3% or 5%, depending on income level.

“Anything from an addition, to replacing your furnace, adding new windows, driveways, things like that would be eligible for that program,” says Alger.

The city also partners with Hennepin County to offer a deferred loan of $30,000 for home improvement projects to those who qualify.

“This is a loan that is forgiven after 15 years if you continue to live in the home for 15 years, it’s then forgiven after that time period,” says Alger.

Not only does Alger say the programs are good for homeowners, it benefits the whole city.

“It’s one of our great strengths here in New Hope, our single and two family housing stock, and we want to make sure that people will be able to maintain them and keep their houses looking great and that is great for the neighborhoods, great for the city,” says Alger.

Before you call a contractor for a home improvement, make another call first.

“If you are thinking about doing a project in New Hope, definitely check with either city staff, or check on the website, see if there’s any programs that may be able to assist you,” says Alger.

New Hope water tower.

New Hope

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