Housing New Mexico has recently opened its waitlist for homeowners who need financing to do renovation projects.
The Home Improvement Program provides assistance through federal funds for income-eligible homeowners.
People in eight new counties including Guadalupe, Harding, Los Alamos, McKinley, Quay, Rio Arriba, San Juan and Union Counties will now be eligible to apply to the Home Improvement Program.
Donna Maestas DeVries, Chief Housing Officer for Housing New Mexico said there’s a huge percentage of homes in the state built before the 1970’s.
“So a lot of these homes, especially people that are aging in place, really have a lot of deferred maintenance and a lot of issues,” she said.
The program covers things like code compliance requirements, health and safety issues, structural problems, energy saving and accessibility modifications.
DeVries said there are a lot of people in New Mexico living in substandard conditions.
“There was one woman that her roof was caving in and she had broken windows,” she said. “So during the winter months, it's very hard to keep the home warm. And then also, with the roof leak, there's issues with mold, which is very unhealthy.”
The program helped her finance those repairs.
Rehabilitation assistance is provided in the form of a zero percent interest conditional forgivable loan. The home must be owned and occupied by the applicant and the household income must not exceed 80% of the area median income.
Eligible dwellings include single family homes, manufactured homes, condos and even mobile homes.
Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
