Sugarloaf Township resident Charmaine Maynard worries her back-tax debt will jeopardize her qualification for two forgivable Luzerne County grants that helped her replace her furnace and electrical wiring.
Maynard received assistance through the county’s Emergency Home Rehabilitation Program, which provides federally funded repairs for income-eligible families so they can remain in their homes. The program is intended to address building issues that create “unexpected and immediate danger” to the occupants, and the most common funded repairs involve heating units, leaks and electrical systems.
Commission on Economic Opportunity, or CEO, administers the program on the county’s behalf. Liens in the dollar amount of the repairs are placed on participating homes for five years, with 20 percent of the loan forgiven annually until the debt is cleared.
Maynard received a new furnace for $5,203 last year and $1,500 in electrical repairs earlier this year, county records show.
County Community Development Director Andrew Reilly said his office recently received an inquiry from a resident questioning how Maynard qualified for the program due to her back taxes.
The program requirements say applicants must submit a copy of their approved back-tax payment plan with the county if their real estate taxes are not current, but Maynard did not.
Reilly said property owners on back-tax payment plans are not disqualified from the program if they are honoring their repayment agreements.
The county is still reviewing whether Maynard was current on her back-tax repayments when she applied for the furnace assistance last year, Reilly said.
However, the county has determined Maynard was not current on her repayments when she applied for the electrical repairs, which means it won’t be forwarding $1,500 to CEO to cover those repairs, Reilly said. It’s unclear what, if any, action will be taken by CEO to recoup the $1,500 from Maynard.
As a result of the discovery, the county has instructed CEO to independently check for back taxes in all future applications, Reilly said, stressing the situation was an “anomaly” and that the nonprofit is an “excellent partner” essential to carrying out several county programs.
Maynard, 64, said she lives alone in her house along Route 93. The structure was designed by her father, and she has lived there since she was 12.
She said she got behind on her taxes years ago because her structure was assessed too high as she recovered from a fire, a snowstorm roof collapse and repetitive flooding that required additional drainage.
Her payment records show she paid around $20,000 in November 2007 and obtained a repayment agreement to catch up on the rest of her debt by paying $350 per month. She convinced a judge to reinstate the agreement in 2013 after she lapsed on some payments so the property wouldn’t be listed in a back-tax auction that year, county records show.
She missed one monthly payment in 2015 and did not pay in March, July, October, November and December 2016, her records show. She also missed this year’s January payment but paid $400 in February. County tax-claim operator Northeast Revenue Service LLC plans to list the property in the September tax sale due to the recent missed payments.
She owes $2,320 in school, county and township real estate taxes for 2007 and $972 in county and school taxes for 2012.
Maynard, who served on the study commission that drafted the county’s home rule charter and ran a watchdog organization called Citizens Opposing Political Suppression, or COPS, said she came up with the $350 most months by making sacrifices.
She said her only income is from $1,650 in Social Security. Her clothes come from the Salvation Army, and she drives a nearly decade-old car, skips medication to make a month’s worth last five weeks, hasn’t had a steak in years and has no idea how she is going to find money to remove a tree that fell on her property during a recent storm so she doesn’t lose her insurance coverage.
Working is not an option, she said, because she suffers from seizures, fibromyalgia, asthma, a “crippled” right arm, atrophied leg muscles that will soon require her to wear braces and other conditions.
“You name it, I have it,” she said. “It’s been hard, very, very hard.”
Maynard said she is determined to live her remaining days in her family home.
“It’s hard to stoop and ask for help, but I had nowhere to go,” she said.
Six other county property owners received home repairs through the Emergency Rehabilitation Grant Program last year, ranging from $1,017 to $6,400, county records show.
The eligibility income caps range from $33,850 for a household of one to $63,800 for a family of eight. The county currently has about $60,000 available to cover assistance.
Participants must own and occupy their homes. Properties in the county’s four cities — Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton, Pittston and Nanticoke — are not eligible because these municipalities are eligible for their own federal funding.
Contact CEO at 570-826-0510 for more information.
For other local news stories, click here.
