Grants aim to improve housing, job skills

Five nonprofit groups have received $120,000 in grants from the city of Columbus to restore houses while teaching construction skills to at-risk youths and former offenders.

The groups receiving grants:

• Franklinton Rising: $40,000

• Driven Foundation: $20,000

• Impact Community Action: $20,000 • Youthbuild: $20,000 • Refuge Inc.: $20,000 They all received grants through the Learning Skills to Lift Neighborhoods program.

That work will help improve neighborhoods while adding trained people to the workforce, said Steve Schoeny, the city's development director.

Robert "Bo" Chilton of Impact Community Action said his program helps to address a housing-affordability crisis and teaches skills to help people become self-sufficient.

Two of the houses — one in the Linden area, the other in Franklinton — are Columbus land-bank properties.

The Franklinton property, on Wisconsin Avenue, will be renovated by Franklinton Rising, which also will fix one on Chicago Avenue.

Tom Heffner, Franklinton Rising’s president, said both homes in the neighborhood will be gutted and rebuilt. His group will then rent the houses to workers, and it will sell the houses to them at a belowmarket price if they stay there for three to five years.

“We’re taking at-risk adults and preparing them for careers in the building trades,” Heffner said.

This is the second year for the program. In 2017, Franklinton Rising received $40,000 to help fix a firedamaged duplex on Chicago Avenue. Lower Lights Ministries now uses that home for women in recovery.