YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. is receiving a $1.11 million grant from a state agency to provide emergency home repairs and handicapped accessibility improvements to lower-income Mahoning County homeowners.

The money will be used to make improvements to 373 housing units, impacting 1,007 people at or below 50 percent of the county’s median income. The county’s median income is about $50,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Ian Beniston, YNDC executive director, said the grant “will allow us to assist dozens of Youngstown and Mahoning County households with critical home repairs and continue our ongoing neighborhood stabilization efforts.”

YNDC will finish using the grant money by Feb. 28, 2025.

The funding is coming from the Ohio Department of Development’s Ohio Housing Trust Fund’s Housing Assistance Grant Program.

It is a competitive grant for eligible Ohio nonprofits designed to promote affordable housing opportunities and improve housing conditions for those at or below 50 percent of the area median income.

State Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, said: “Getting our residents vibrant housing that meets their needs is a huge priority of mine at the Statehouse. Government has to play a role in incentivizing new builds and repairs or many of our hardworking friends and neighbors won’t have the living conditions necessary to b happy and independent.”

McNally is co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill to establish a state tax credit to help create more affordable modern housing throughout Ohio. The lack of modern housing is a major issue in the Mahoning Valley as only 7 percent of all homes in the area were built after 2000, she said.