CITY SEEKING HOMES IN NEED OF RENOVATION

Cape Girardeau has $150,000 to spend on housing renovations and is looking for homes in need of repair.

Steve Williams, housing assistance coordinator for the city, is certain he'll find people to volunteer for the program. "I've got a list already started," he said.

The city will use the grant funding to help homeowners with repairs like new floors or roof and rewiring electrical outlets and circuits. The grant is a joint effort of the city and Wood & Huston Bank. The money is funded through Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, Iowa.

The city applied for the $150,000 grant last fall. "We want to make them safer and sanitary housing for the older neighborhoods," Williams said.

If there is a hole in the roof, the grant will help pay for a new one not just patchwork, he said. In some cases the repairs keep the houses from being condemned later.

Williams also administers the condemnation program for the city.

The rehabilitation grant program has helped the city clean up older neighborhoods where residents have low or moderate income levels and couldn't always pay for the expensive repairs, he said. A meeting to explain the program is planned for tonight at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 401 Independence.

In one particular house owned by an 88-year-old woman, Williams found that repairs to floor joints or decaying brick would save the property.

By participating in the grant program, it allows the city to "put money into her house that will make it last the rest of her lifetime" and for future owners, Williams said.

The rehabilitation grant includes $5,000 for 30 houses in an area bounded by Independence Street to the north, West End Boulevard on the west, Hackberry Street on the south and the Mississippi River on the east. Twenty of the houses will be added to already existing block grant program in the Shawnee Parkway neighborhood.

Applications for the program will be accepted after today at the Division of Planning Services offices at City Hall. You can also call Steve Williams at 334-8326.