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HOPE Partners with Delta Design Build to Repair Homes in the MS Delta

March 25th, 2020   

HOPE is a partner with Delta Design Build on a program that provides home repair assistance to low-wealth families in Mississippi. The Special Need Assistance Program (SNAP) is a home repair grant through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB). The program provides small-dollar grants to low-income homeowners who are elderly and/or disabled, and is available annually through FHLB Member financial institutions.

A grant manager partners with a member bank to apply for the funding on behalf of the household. This is the second year that the Delta Design Build Workshop (Delta DB) is acting as grant manager and partnering with local financial institutions, including HOPE, to connect households with this funding. Emily Roush-Elliott, architect and co-founder of Delta Design Build, says the grants go toward repairs, such as roof leaks or dangerous electrical hazards that “typically lead to the home beginning a cycle of decline that, ultimately, can displace homeowners and leave a vacant and deteriorating building behind. Instead, the SNAP grant stops that cycle, allowing residents to age in place in the home they own, and eventually pass that property on to their children or grandchildren.”

HOPE leaders on the project are Phil Eide, senior vice president of Community and Economic Development, and Dee Jones, vice president of Community and Economic Development. Delta Business Design applied for 18 SNAP grants and 17 were awarded. The majority are in Greenwood, Miss. Others were awarded in Itta Bena and communities near Indianola.