Just as the city of Ethel wraps up Main Street sidewalk construction funded by a Mississippi Department of Transportation grant, Mayor Gwen Sims has learned the city will receive a $505,000 housing grant from the Mississippi Home Corporation.
With the backing of Ethel’s Board of Aldermen, Sims worked with John Wiggers of North Central Planning and Development to apply for one of the grants from the state agency. Ethel was one of only 10 of the 57 applicants who will receive funding.
“We had asked John to help us keep up with any grants for housing that might come up because there hadn’t been any in recent years,” said Sims.
Part of the application process was proving that Ethel is doing all that it can to improve life for residents of the community. They highlighted the sidewalk project as well as the replacement of a lift station to demonstrate that the city is making progress.
“That showed that Ethel is trying to improve itself,” said Sims.
The HOME Rehabilitation funding can be awarded by one of two models. The grant can be used entirely for new home construction replacing existing substandard housing, or the city could apply for a 60/40 grant, which splits the award between new construction and rehabilitation projects. Ethel elected for the 60/40 model, meaning 60% of the funds will go toward bringing existing housing up to code, with the remaining 40% being used to construct homes from the ground up.
Sims said with this grant, the city expects to be able to construct two full replacement homes and bring four substandard housing units up to code. It is possible, depending on individual project costs, that more or less than four homes can be rehabilitated. The two new homes will need to be of the same type being replaced, i.e. a modular home can only be replaced by a modular home.
Before the projects can move forward, Sims is slated to attend an administrative training this week. There will then be a community workshop planned for residents who wish to apply to have their homes fixed or replaced.
An inspector from the state will visit each of the applicant residences to determine the official requirements of each project. If a resident applies for a replacement roof, the inspector will check to ensure that is the only work necessary to bring the home up to code. If there are other items that must be done, they will be added to the project scope.
Once all the applications are evaluated and estimated, the state will prioritize projects until all of the funding is expended.
