Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership Awarded USDA Housing Preservation Grant

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License.  Photo by  ario_ 

Funding will help maintain housing stock in SW Minnesota


The Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership (SWMHP) has been selected to receive a $69,000 Housing Preservation Grant through USDA Rural Development. The grant will be used to assist 11 very-low and low-income households in the cities of St. James, Sleepy Eye, Winthrop, Gibbon and New Auburn make essential improvements and repairs to their homes.


SWMHP is a member of the Center's Homeownership Advisors Network and offers Home Stretch workshops and counseling, refinance counseling and foreclosure prevention services in dozens of counties in Southwest Minnesota.


The Housing Preservation Grant program provides funding to intermediaries such as town or county governments, public agencies, federally recognized Indian Tribes, and non-profit and faith-based and community organizations. These organizations then distribute the grants to homeowners and owners of multi-family rental properties or cooperative dwellings who rent to low- and very-low-income residents.  


Grants may be used to make general repairs, such as installing or improving plumbing or providing or enhancing access to people with disabilities. Funds may also be used to weatherize and make homes more energy efficient.


To learn more about the Southwest MN Housing Partnership, visit their website at http://www.swmhp.org/.  


Improvement and rehab programs available through the Southwest MN Housing Partnership are included in the Center's "Repair and Rehab Matrix" that we've created as a resource listing improvement, rehab and repair programs in local communities throughout the state.  Programs included in the Matrix include:

• emergency repair, 
• energy efficiency, 
• lead hazard abatement, and 
• general repair. 

Some funds are grants and others are loans, usually with below market interest rates.  Looking for help with repair or rehab on your home?  Visit the matrix page of the Center's website here: http://www.hocmn.org/en/rehab.cfm

Dollars available to purchase in rural Minnesota

Looking to buy a home in rural Minnesota?  USDA Rural Development has about $2.4 billion available to assist individual and families, who make less than 80% of their Area Median Income, become home owners in 2010. Rural Development recently began a new campaign: "All the Way to 20K" to help assist at least 20,000 families achieve homeownership in 2010 through its Direct Home Loan program.



Some of the highlights of the Direct Home Loan program include:

• Targeted at very-low and low income applicants who do not qualify for traditional financing.
• Non-traditional credit accepted.
• Interest rates as low as one percent depending on income and interest rate subsidy.
• Low or no down payment.
• Fixed interest rates.

Are you thinking about purchasing your first home... and wondering if you might qualify for these funds through Rural Development?  Not sure what your next steps should be?  Speak with a non-profit housing counselor!  For more information about housing counseling... click here.