TRUMBULL COUNTY, Ohio (WKBN) – To date, no one has learned to turn back time, and as time goes by, things get older and worn down. Homes are no exception, and while one person might see an old home to tear down, the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership sees potential.

TNP has a number of programs that focus largely on affordable housing and access to healthy food options. They work with the Trumbull County Land Bank to help renovate old homes so they can sell them to those who might have difficulty obtaining housing.

“The Land Bank oversees a lot of different things when it comes to housing,” said Mikenna McClurg, program coordinator for the Land Bank. “We have done a lot of demolition in the past, but we’re starting to transition a little bit more into the renovation side.”

A lot of the renovations are possible through grant funding from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, which allows them to subsidize some of the renovation expenses in order to keep costs down for homeowners.

Right now, they have a home in Niles they’re working on and seven others they’re working on in Warren city.

“Typically on the homes we do roofs, gutters. We do furnaces, hot water heaters, plumbing. Of course, cosmetic things like paint, flooring,” McClurg said.

“When it comes to our Building a Better Warren crew, they will also take on a lot of the other activities like cleaning out the properties and do some of the cosmetic and finishing work,” said Landon Kline, program coordinator for Building a Better Warren.

Building a Better Warren connects residents with full-time, year-round employment in blight remediation.

Kline is a Hubbard native and saw that there was a quality of life issue that needed to be addressed, so he wanted to help fix it.

“That interest really came into becoming a reality in college,” he said. “And there were opportunities to get involved and do neighborhood cleanups and work on the various houses over there and fell in love with the kind of work.”

“When I started working with housing, I just fell in love with it. I love houses, I love working with the community, so this was just a perfect fit for me. At the end of the renovations, I love being able to see the people that are able to move in after the work that we’ve done,” McClurg said.