YOUNGSTOWN – The Mahoning County Land Bank received a $5 million state grant that will go toward the construction of 19 new affordable houses: 16 in Youngstown and one each in Struthers, Campbell and Sebring.

This is the second grant the land bank received this year from the Ohio Department of Development’s Welcome Home Ohio program.

It received a $2.4 million grant earlier this year for six new homes to be built on Mineral Springs Avenue on Youngstown’s South Side and for the renovation of six existing homes.

“We’ll have 31 affordable housing opportunities coming from the funding,” said Debora Flora, the land bank’s executive director.

The land bank’s board of directors met Tuesday to sign the grant agreement with the state and for a contract with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. to be the project’s general contractor.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for a lot of people to be able to purchase homes,” Flora said.

Like the six houses to be built on Mineral Springs Avenue – a groundbreaking ceremony was last week – the 19 new single-family homes will each feature 1,475 square feet with three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms.

The top sales price will be $180,000 and will include a 100%, 15-year property tax abatement for the homes bought in Youngstown. Also, eligible homebuyers for the Youngstown houses can receive up to $10,000 for down payments and closing costs as part of the city’s At Home in Youngstown program, funded through an American Rescue Plan allocation.

All of the homes are available to qualified buyers with incomes at or below 80% of the area’s median income. That is about $60,000 for a family of four.

“They’ll all be energy efficient so buyers won’t be strained by high utility costs,” Flora said.

Some of the houses will be finished next year with the rest in 2026, Flora said.

The properties were all acquired through tax foreclosures and are owned by the land bank.

During the past 15 years, about 20 new houses were built in Youngstown.

The houses on Mineral Springs Avenue should be finished by May.

The state set aside $100 million for Welcome Home Ohio, a program that will provide affordable and safe housing.

An additional $50 million in nonrefundable tax credits are available to land banks and eligible developers for rehabilitation and new construction projects once a property is sold.

Meanwhile, YNDC was awarded a $2.54 million grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati’s Affordable Housing Program for home repairs, new construction and down payment assistance.

YNDC partnered with Premier Bank on two of the applications. One is for $1.5 million to support home repairs to 150 units of owner-occupied housing in Mahoning and Columbiana counties, and the other is $336,000 to support the construction of six new rental units on Glenwood Avenue in Youngstown.

YNDC partnered with Huntington National Bank on a $705,000 award to provide down payment assistance of up to $18,000 per unit for 30 homebuyers in the Mahoning Valley.