The City of Clearlake announced today the launch of the Homestead Program which is a unique housing concept created by City Manager, Alan Flora. "We are very excited for the launch of the Homestead Program. I think it will be great for the community." Flora stated.

The Homestead Program's focus is on employed, entry-level professionals or recent hires in search of building quality housing in Lake County's largest population and services center. The program design intends to offset higher than normal construction costs by eliminating additional fees and land costs in order to facilitate new housing development for median to moderate income professionals (as defined each year by HCD) in order to encourage job creation and retention efforts.

Program participants need to be employed in Lake County (telecommuting may apply) and will receive an existing  City-owned lot or City funded purchase of an alternative property in the City of Clearlake (not to exceed $10,000) as well as approximately $40,000 of building permit fees paid to local agencies on their behalf, access to pre-approved building plans, and priority review of building plans.

Anyone interested in applying for the Homestead Program will need to visit the City's website at https://clearlake.ca.us/431/Homestead-Program and fill out the online application. All applications will be reviewed by the City's Loan Committee for approval. The first round of application review is from March 9th to April 4th. Additional rounds of application review will be announced as they become available.

While this program is not a low-income program, the City has other low-income housing projects in the works.

Additional terms and conditions may apply. For more information please visit www.clearlake.ca.us.