Columbus extends relief to more than 50 homeowners

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Columbus City Council is looking to relieve dozens of homeowners of a debt burden that goes back years.

New legislation would forgive liens on more than 50 homes, and those homeowners say it's long overdue.

For one family, it’s been 12 years of pushing for answers. Multiple people in the family signed up for a home improvement program in the late 1990s.

They were under the impression it was a grant and the lien would be removed in 10 years if they lived in their homes. That wasn’t the case, for all of them, until June 3.

One member of the family said she had her lien forgiven in the early 2000s. Two others did not and found out when one tried to refinance her home.

"When we got to the very end, the lender informed her that she would have to get approval from the city of Columbus in order to get the refinance approved," Quanetta Batts, who has been helping her family fight for the loan forgiveness, said. 

That was 12 years ago. Batts said that about five years ago, she finally got through to someone in the city who looked into the issue.

"It really just took somebody to stop and listen and look into what it was that we were telling them, Rita agreed immediately that this doesn't seem fair, something doesn't seem right," Batts said. 

Rita is with the city and Batts said the woman has been a huge help in this process.

The family just wanted to know why one family member's contract had the forgiveness language, while the other two did not.

"Their sister who lives on the south side of Columbus, she's the one that had a very similar program. The contracts were almost identical, but hers said forgiveness after 10 years," Batts said. 

Now city council is helping this family as well as many others.

"Recognizing that home ownership is the number one way in which people build wealth and knowing that there needs to be equity in the way in which homeownership continues to thrive in our community, this is a way to take into accounting some of those realities," Columbus City Councilmember Shayla Favor said. "We want to make sure that our current homeowners don't lose their home because of something like a lien that has been way past due."

The Department of Development Chief Communications Officer Cameron Keir sent a statement saying:

“When the contracts in discussion were initially signed, there was not any language contained indicating a forgiveness program that Columbus has since adopted. Previous legislation indicated Council action to forgive those loans is required, that is what tonight’s Council action does for these families. This is part of a citywide initiative to ensure housing security and equitable housing investment across Columbus – two significant pieces of Mayor Ginther’s housing strategy. If any families impacted by this or previous legislation have questions or concerns about their contracts, we encourage them to reach out to the Department of Development individually.” 

Batts and her family came to council Monday, and for them, the passage is a sigh of relief.

"I'm just glad that our situation is helping 200 other families in our community who would have been burdened with paying these grants back had they tried to sell their homes," Batts said. 

In total, the city said 158 homeowners have been approved for the homeowner service program loan forgiveness; 54 of those were on Monday.

The city says loans of more than $20,000 are the ones that need to be approved by council. The Department of Development is encouraging families who are impacted by this or previous legislation to reach out to them with any questions.