How to access the Get The Lead Out program in Somerville

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

I'm posting this as a general FYI for Somervillians, in the hopes of saving others the pain our household went through.

The summary: there are two programs to help finance deleading. One is funded by HUD; the other is funded by MassHousing. The latter is called Get The Lead Out and has higher income cutoffs and more loan options than the HUD program.

After months of trying to get the city of Somerville to acknowledge that a) the MassHousing program exists, and b) the Office of Strategic Planning is supposed to be the administrator of it for residents of Somerville*, we gave up and emailed MassHousing. They let us know that we (and anyone else in Massachusetts) could apply for one of their loans through an agency in Boston called Urban Edge.


*Multiple people in the Office of Strategic Planning have disavowed all knowledge of the GTLO program, and say that the only program they administer is the HUD one. One seemed surprised to find out GTLO existed.

Comments

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much

This is handy for any home,especially since most in Somerville are built before 1976 and most likely contain lead paint somewhere

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

The HUD option also offers forgivable loans for those with low income. Do you know if Get The Lead Out also offers that, or do all options require full payback?

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

The page I linked to says that people who qualify for the 0% loan may not have to pay it back until they sell or refinance their home, but it doesn't seem that they do fully-forgivable loans.