With Clock Counting Down, Homesteading Bill Needs Public Support to Progress

Coming together from both sides of the aisle, the Kanawha County delegation is back this year with another proposal to address vacant and dilapidated properties.

Last year they passed the great Property Rescue Initiative, which is now a program coordinated between the West Virginia Housing Development Fund, The Hub and the Northern Brownfields Assistance Center. This year, led again by Delegate Nancy Guthrie, the Kanawha County delegation has teamed up with a couple of Fayette County delegates to create the Community Homesteading Program.

The legislation would create a statewide homesteading program in the West Virginia Development Office, with five initial pilot projects supported by grants through the Development Office’s Promotion Fund.

The bill heads first to the Political Subdivisions Committee, chaired by Delegate Erikka Storch of Wheeling.

If you’re like us and are really excited about the potential for homesteading to address dilapidated properties and serve as a creative, collaborative mechanism to revitalize communities, give Delegate Storch a holler (304-340-3378) and ask her to put it on the agenda for next week’s committee meeting.

This committee only meets once a week, and we’ve only got two more weeks left to get it on the agenda before it dies. So give her a call and help get it moving!