At its Monday night meeting, the Gary Common Council approved changes that would expand the availability of the city’s down payment assistance progam to more residents.
The council unanimously approved the changes. Councilwoman Mary Brown, D-3rd, and Councilman Myles Tolliver, D-at large, were both absent from the vote Monday evening.
The Gary council typically meets at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays, but the meeting was rescheduled to 5 p.m. Monday “due to a scheduling conflict.”
The city’s down payment assistance program was created from the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds in December 2024, according to Post-Tribune archives. The plan was previously limited to first responders, who would receive up to $30,000, and city employees, including those at the Gary Sanitary District and Gary/Chicago International Airport, who would receive up to $18,000.
The expanded program will also provide funds up to $30,000 to teachers and health care workers who plan to buy a home and live within Gary city limits. City employees will also receive up to $30,000 through the expanded program, according to ordinance documents.
City Attorney Marco Molina said Monday that the program is available to first-time homebuyers.
“Any members of the general public can receive up to 6% of the purchase price of a home, not to exceed $10,000,” Molina said.
According to ordinance documents, the assistance can be applied to the construction of a new home, an existing home or “an owner-occupied home that will be renovated under the FHA 203 K loan program, as well as conventional mortgage loans.”
Those who participate in the down payment assistance program have to use the property as their primary residence for five years. Program members can use funds for various costs, including down payment assistance, pre-paid expenses, closing costs, discount points and mortgage rate buy-downs.
In December, the Gary Common Council approved more than 15 ordinances that appropriated more than $10 million ARPA funds throughout the city, according to Post-Tribune archives. ARPA funds had to be obligated by the end of 2024 and used by the end of 2026.
When it became law in March 2021, ARPA provided about $350 billion in additional funding to state and local governments, according to the Government Finance Officers Association.
Eligible uses of funds include revenue replacement, COVID-19 expenditures, premium pay for essential workers, and investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure. ARPA funds can’t be used to directly or indirectly offset tax reductions and can’t be deposited into a pension fund.
Ragen Hatcher, former director of community development, told the council that the funds would help create the down payment assistance program. Former Council President Tai Adkins said she believed the program would help bring more families into Gary, according to Post-Tribune archives.
“One of the main opportunities that I believe that we probably had not capitalized on with the ARPA funding was to ensure that we were having some type of impact to generate funding back to the revenue source,” Adkins previously said.
