The Warren County commissioners say they want to stop hand-outs of federal funds to private home buyers.

Warren County Commissioner Dave Young was incredulous when he learned Tuesday people who earn as much as $50,000 — 80 percent of the average Warren County income — can get funds to pay for down payments and closing costs from federal grants obtained by the former Warren County Balanced Housing Corporation. That non-profit has merged with the county’s community service organization and needs to reapply for its Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) by April 1.

Margie Dunn, director of the program, visited the commissioners, asking them to reconvene a committee tasked with updating the county’s consolidated housing plan and consider reapplying for the CHIP program.

Young likened the program to what happened with the housing market in 2007 and 2008 when the government decided everyone had a right to own a home, regardless of their ability to shoulder the responsibility. He said that event nearly obliterated the country’s economy and he won’t support anything that piles onto the trillions of dollars of debt the country faces.

“People coming in and getting down payments for no money down, three percent down or five percent down, they have no skin in the game, of course I’m going to do it, I don’t have any assets anyway, I’m going to go buy the house and if it blows up I’ll walk away and throw them back the keys, who cares,” he said. “Housing is not supposed to work that way… That’s like hitting the stinking lottery.”

Dunn prefaced her remarks by saying she knows the commissioners aren’t keen on handouts of public money, and neither is she. She said they have helped 155 households move into new homes since 2006 with public money — some in the form of cash, others in interest-free loans and more with home buying advice and counseling — to the tune of $1.4 million.

Dunn said the county needs to update its consolidated housing plan in order to keep their Community Development Block Grant funds — which help shovel out blighted areas — and they can tailor the CHIP grant any way they please. The application is for $250,000 over two years.

“I know how you feel about the down payment assistance and I agree with you 100 percent,” she said. “You can do in a match if you wanted to. There’s any number of ways you could structure it, opposite or different from the way it used to be.”

She said the money is in a pot already and Warren County residents might as well benefit from taxes they have already paid.

“The funding is there, that’s the thing about county government, we don’t get to vote on the federal level,” she said. “But the funding is here and we have a responsibility here in this county and we need to make the funds that are available to this county, utilizing in this county, because we do pay the taxes so why shouldn’t we use these funds to provide maybe some senior help.”

Young acknowledged he used the same argument when he voted to take $5 million in federal funds for the waste water treatment plant, but he said they had to do that project anyway.

Dunn advocated switching the focus of the funds on helping seniors who are able stay in their homes by using the funds for home rehabilitation.

Commissioner Pat South said she is strongly opposed to continuing financial freebies for first time home buyers but wants to explore the help for seniors and disabled and to continue the agency’s educational component. Commissioner Tom Ariss agreed.

The county will explore the issue.