PROVO — Without a little help, Mirian Stay's 2-year-old boy couldn't play in Grandma's back yard, her husband couldn't walk to work, and Stay wouldn't be a homeowner.
Thanks to a loan through Neighborhood Housing Services — a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing the downtown area — Stay owns the house where Grandma once lived.
She also enjoys the central location — the house sits across the street from Maeser Elementary — and can see the advantages to homeownership.
"You feel like you're investing in something," Stay says, "something you're involved in both emotionally and financially. I think homeowners take better care of their homes than renters."
City leaders think the same thing, and that's why they want more families like the Stays to put down roots in the city's core neighborhoods. Homeowners don't just take better care of their homes than renters, they also commit less crime.
To increase home ownership in these areas, the City Council wants to budget a minimum of $1 million in federal grant money next year for programs to revitalize the downtown area.
Some residents and council members want to change the way these funds —called community development block grants — have been used recently.
This year, the city budgeted about $250,000 of these funds to build streets and storm drains to service the baseball stadium in Ironton.
City leaders justify this use of CDBG money because they say a baseball stadium will indirectly benefit the downtown area by creating more jobs.
"I think the council wants to use this money in a way that will directly benefit people that live in these neighborhoods," said Councilman Stan Lockhart, the council budget chairman. "The No. 1 thing we should be doing with this money is to help increase home ownership."
A number of proposals on how CDBG money should be used next year have come before the city's redevelopment agency. Director Ron Madsen says it is too early to determine how the council's proposal will affect next year's budget.
Madsen's office and a citizen's committee made up of neighborhood and area representatives will study the proposals until March before deciding how the grant money should be used.
"The problem is there are so many great programs and only so much money," Madsen said.
The council's recent proposal may be in response to a growing impatience among some downtown Provo residents with the slow progress of revitalization.
Stay and Maeser neighborhood chairwoman Bonnie Callis both bemoan the loss of Maeser Elementary and think the city should do more for the central neighborhoods.
"The council is always talking about revitalizing the downtown neighborhoods, but I don't see that. It doesn't seem like they listen," Stay says.
To the council's credit, pumping life into central Provo is no overnight task. There are several governmental and private agencies dedicated to building up the downtown area constantly that are constantly pitching new programs.
Tuesday, for example, Mayor Lewis K. Billings and the Provo City Redevelopment Agency will announce a new home loan program in Provo. There are also plans for a 30-unit complex for low-income senior citizens.
In four years, Neighborhood Housing Services has already offered 53 down-payment loans or grants for central Provo homes.
"This council has been very dedicated to revitalization. We've seen a lot more focus," said National Housing Services program director Kena Mathews. "We have a long ways to go, but I think we've accomplished a lot."
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