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Wednesday evening, members of the Anderson community came out to a sit-in meeting at the Beloved Apostolic Church of God in Selmont to learn about the USDA Housing Preservation Grant and its benefit to the members chosen in their community.

Robert Corwin, who is affiliated with The USDA Housing Preservation Grant and a consultant for Site, Inc. said the grant was awarded to help six qualified home owners within the Anderson community, who have significant needs to their homes that need to be repaired.

The eligible expenses for the grant consists of repairing or replacing foundations, roofs, insulation, electrical wiring, heating systems and water and waste disposal systems.

Corwin told members Wednesday in order to see if they are qualified to get the USDA Housing Preservation Grant funding assistance in the allotment of $7,000 per household, they would have to fill out an application, provide all required documents listed in the application and mail all information to Site, Inc., P.O. Box 3565 in Montgomery, AL with the zip code of 36109 attached as well.

“For the first six people that qualify with their information, I can go through their application give them a call and we can discuss the repair list. The ones that send me an incomplete application, I will just put it over here in the waiting pile,” Corwin said.

All throughout the meeting, Corwin urged citizens of the Anderson community who were interested in getting help with the repairs of their home, to fill the information out correctly and submit all required documents as soon as they get them because he said the funding is on a first come, first serve basis.

One resident within the meeting named Mary Tolbert told Corwin she had several problems within her home from a leak in her house that was coming from the roof to pipes under her home that needed to be replaced including water pipes from the road that need replacing as well so, she could hook up her water meter.

“It’s just awful,” Tolbert said. “Poor people can’t hardly make it and I worked all my life and I don’t want nothing to happen to my house.”

Tolbert said after spending the majority of her check on her insurance for her house each month, she said she is hoping she can be one of the recipients to receive funding to help keep her house up to par and remain livable.

Corwin said he wants people in the community to know that there is assistance for people in need of home repair and that they have a program through the interest of the AGAPE Community Economic Development Inc. nonprofit that Is advocating for them.