Dateline: March 13, 2008

USDA announces housing preservation grand funds

TEMPLE – Scooter Brockette, USDA Rural Development Acting State Director announced today the availability of Housing Preservation Grant funds.

The program provides financial assistance to eligible entities to assist in the repair or rehabilitation of single-family and rental residences located in rural communities.

Eligible entities who would administer the grant funds can include state agencies, units of local government, Native American tribes, and nonprofit organizations.

The Agency’s Housing Preservation Grant Program can also provide assistance through eligible entities to rental property owners to repair and rehabilitate their units providing the owners agree to make the units available to very low- and low-income families. Individual homeowners and rental property owners are not eligible entities for these competitively awarded grants.

The USDA Rural Development Housing Preservation Grant Program provides assistance to residential projects located in eligible communities with a maximum population of 20,000.

Applications must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. on April 21, 2008, to USDA Rural Development, Federal Building, Suite 102, 101 South Main, Temple, Texas 76501 or submitted online at http://www.grants.gov by 4 p.m. CST on April 21, 2008. For more information on the Housing Preservation Grant Program, please contact our Amarillo Local Office at 806-468-8600, Extension 4.