The City of Vicksburg has applied to receive a $500,000 grant that will go straight toward tearing down dilapidated houses in order to promote restoration and renovation.
The grant would come from the Blight Elimination Program that is putting $20 million into Mississippi. That money is then spread across the state to help relieve areas that are run down. Grant applications can bring up to $500,000 to cities and towns to assist them with blight and dilapidated housing.
Applicants can re-apply after the initial funds have been granted and receive up to $4 million based on need in the area.
The city of Columbus is the only city that has cleared the application process as of now, but Executive Director of the program, Scott Spivey expects to receive applications from all over the state.
“A lot of cities around Mississippi have blight, and that’s why this has been something we’ve pushed with treasury for a long time,” Spivey said.
While Vicksburg has not gone through the application process just yet, they are in need of the funds and are thankful that this program has been created.
“Mississippi Home core was allotted $20 million for this fund. We were blessed to be apart of it, because here in the city of Vicksburg we were doing in house demolition of dilapidated homes,” said Gertrude Young with the Housing Department.
She said every year the city was tearing down around 25 homes, which costs about $250,000. This grant will go directly to those costs and the cost to rebuild homes in those areas.
“This will save our tax payers a lot of money,” said Young. “Under this we are able to take the funding and partner with a Blight Elimination Partner who will really be having the communication between the homeowner of the dilapidated home.”
The awards must be used within a six month period.
