Rural Housing and Economic Development 1999 Grants

PROJECT SUMMARY: ALABAMA

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund in Epes, AL will receive a Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $207,800. This seed support grant will increase the staff capacity of the Federation's Rural Housing and Economic Development program so that it may develop single family homeownership and multi-family housing development in the rural target area. The additional staff will provide outreach, counseling, packaging, and housing development to individuals and community groups. This program will serve Choctaw, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Marengo, Perry, Pickens, Sumter, Bolivar, Holmes, Humphreys, Noxubee, and Winston. In-kind leveraging resources from the Federation total $50,000 in support of this program. Key participants include: the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives and the Panola Land Buying Association Housing Development Corporation.

Contact Person: John Zippert
Grantee Address: PO Box 95, Epes, AL 35460
Phone: (205) 652-9676

Design Corps, in Newbern, AL will receive a Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $224,190 for use in Uniontown. Given its economic plight, the community is in dire need of well-designed, well-equipped industrial sites to support local industrial expansion efforts and new industry recruiting efforts. The seed funds will support the acquisition, improvement and marketing of approximately 17 acres of property that will be developed as a top quality industrial site in Uniontown. Site improvements for the property will include an access road, industrial water services, and commercial sewer service. The grant will be used to support these improvements and the preparation of the engineering and architectural plans necessary to develop the site. Furthermore, this project will directly leverage an EPA funded Brownfields planning project to environmentally assess and plan for clean up of the former King Pharr Canning industrial site. Since the EPA Brownfields grant only supports site assessment and planning for clean up, the HUD grant will allow the town to conduct development activities on this industrial site.

Contact Person: Scott Scholz
Grantee Address: 8448 Alabama Highway 61, Newbern, AL 36765
Phone Number: (334) 624-3519

Upper Sand Mountain United Methodist Larger Parish Inc., in Sylvania, AL will receive a Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $47,300. This cooperative ministry of 11 small membership rural churches stretches across nearly 1000 square miles of Northeast Alabama, Appalachian, and Sand Mountain. Their Heart and Hand Housing Program screening committee is a special task group made up of local church and community people representing the service area. Over the past fifteen years, 29 homes have been completed with volunteer labor and sponsor churches, community businesses and organizations. With this grant Upper Sand Mountain Parish will construct at least 18 homes over the next three years. The capacity building component will be various forms of training aided by the purchase of computers and software to expand services into healthcare, small scale commercial cannery, gardening projects, and solar construction workshops. This program will serve Jackson and DeKalb counties. In-kind leveraging resources total $8,200 in support of this program. Key participants include: Jackson County Department of Human Resources and The University of Alabama.

Contact Person: Dorsey H Walker, Director
Grantee Address: P.O.Box 267, Sylvania, AL 35988
Phone Number: 205-638-2126

Content Archived: January 20, 2009