A home rehabilitation program will address health or safety issues in 40 homes in Holmes County and another 10 homes in North Greenwood.
The program is being run by the Community Students Learning Center, a Lexington nonprofit, and is funded by a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas. The home improvement program will provide about $7,500 to fix health and safety hazards in low-income homes.
Beulah Greer, the executive director of the CSLC, told the Leflore County Board of Supervisors last week that she’d originally hoped to fix 10 homes across Leflore County but that grant application requirements meant that only one U.S. Census tract in Leflore County could be included.
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas’ grant program application requirements stipulated that 20 percent of the recipients live in otherwise high-income areas.
Since all of the areas in Holmes County included in the program are considered low income, Greer said that only Census Tract 9506 — which takes in North Greenwood from East Claiborne Avenue to West Park Avenue — met those requirements.
If another area of Leflore County had been used in the grant application, “we probably wouldn’t have gotten the grant because they’re very competitive,” Greer said.
Greer said that only low-income residents of the area in North Greenwood would be considered for the grant program. The Leflore County Board of Supervisors had previously agreed to provide a building inspector to help assess potential recipients.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
