Pine Bluff expands loans to first-responders

PINE BLUFF — The city is expanding a program that assists with recruitment of first-responders by adding home improvement loans and widening the area where fire and police personnel can purchase homes for the maximum loan amount.

All loans made to first-responders are 0% interest and forgivable after five years as long as the recipient stays on the job through the end of the five-year loan term.

Two council members — Bruce Lockett and Win Trafford — offered competing proposals at a City Council meeting last week.

The city implemented the First Responder’s Homebuyers Incentive Program in 2018, providing for 0%/no payment second loans for qualifying applicants in the Police and Fire departments to assist them with buying homes in the city.

In its original incarnation, the program provided for loans of $5,000 for applicants to purchase a home anywhere in the city or $10,000 to purchase a home in one of the city’s three urban renewal zones.

The city’s department of Economic and Community Development ran the program when it was first developed. During that time, according to the department’s director, Larry Mathews, five officers applied for the program and four were approved.

Both resolutions to amend the program struck the twotiered program to implement loans of up to $10,000 for any eligible applicant for a home anywhere within the city and added home improvement repairs and new construction as applicable uses of the money. Another addition allows police and firefighters who own their homes to apply for up to $5,000 for home repair costs.

Money for the program will come from the 2017 fiveeighths percent sales tax.

The resolutions diverged on two points.

Trafford’s resolution, which passed by a 5-3 vote of the council, named Go Forward Pine Bluff as the facilitator of the program, requires first-responders seeking home repair loans to work with licensed and insured subcontractors with business licenses registered with the city, and preference be given to subcontractors who are members of the Pine Bluff Construction and Trade Alliance.

Council Members Trafford, Donald Hatchett, Ivan Whitfield, Glenn Brown Jr. and Joni Alexander voted in favor of the resolution. Council Members Lockett, Steven

Mays and Lloyd Holcomb Jr. voted against it.

Lockett’s resolution, which failed after a 5-3 vote, said the program should stay within the Economic and Community Development Department due to similar programs it administers, and would have required first-responders seeking home repair loans to work with licensed and insured contractors with preference given to local contractors.

Holcomb, Lockett and Mays voted in favor of the resolution. Trafford, Hatchett, Whitfield, Brown and Alexander voted against it.

Mathews said his department had to bill the city for reimbursement of any costs associated with administration of the program because of rules in place by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the programs of which Mathews’ department administers. Go Forward Pine Bluff had agreed to do the same services at no cost to the city.

“Anything that’s not HUD-related, whether the city, Go Forward Pine Bluff, or whatever outside entity, just pay us whatever time we put in on it,” he said. “There’s no set fee, just whatever the hourly rate of whoever we have in our office for whatever time they put in on that particular project.”

Mathews said the services his office had provided for the program consisted of making people aware of the program, explaining how it works, scheduling a home-buyer class for applicants to attend, and reviewing banking disclosures prior to the loan being closed.

Lockett said his concerns had to do with the legality of delegating city business to an outside entity without going through the bidding process or waiving competitive bidding, even though Go Forward Pine Bluff will not be charging the city for its services.

“Let’s say a local contractor who is not part of the trade alliance doesn’t get a bid,” Lockett said. “He can make the argument that we have an ordinance giving preference to local contractors if we don’t enforce that ordinance but we’re going with another process, then you may have a problem with the legality of the resolution superseding the ordinance.”

Trafford said the reason he wanted to switch the duties of facilitator to Go Forward Pine Bluff had to do with utilization of the program. Both resolutions recognized that the program has been underutilized and that increased participation is essential to attracting and retaining motivated, highly qualified first responders.