COAMO AND OTHER FIVE TOWNS RECEIVE $1 MILLION THROUGH A HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT GRANT
USA, August 5 2010. During last month the Town of Kit Carson, Colorado was one of six towns chosen from the entire nation to receive $1 million through a Housing and Urban Development grant for affordable downtown housing. Rick Garcia, regional administrator of HUD, is elated that a town on the eastern plains of Colorado was so honored. He said that it shows that the Obama administration is keeping rural areas in mind. The other towns selected are Martin, S. D.; the Municipality of Coamo, Puerto Rico; Hawkinsville, Ga.; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Wrangell, Alaska. When asked “Why Kit Carson?” Garcia said that there was obviously a very competitive proposal and application process and that the Kit Carson had an extremely creative and innovative proposal.
Work had already been started on revitalizing the downtown area and the proposal writers had the backing of the Kit Carson Historical Society, the Kit Carson Rural Development, the Department of Design and Building at the University of Colorado in Denver and a local contractor who had already done a lot of the reconstruction of downtown, Dan Grinnan LLC. The grant will cover 1) rehabilitation of two (presently uninhabitable) two-bedroom houses; 2) construction of two three-bedroom detached housing units on currently empty lots; 3) demolition of a house on the fifth property and replacing it with a three-bedroom detached housing unit. The grant will not only provide affordable housing, but also provide local jobs.
The grant is under HUD’s HOPE VI Main Street program to encourage affordable housing production in city centers of the small towns. “Raising capital to build affordable housing can be a challenge when small towns give their downtowns a facelift,” said Garcia. “This funding provides Kit Carson the tools it needs to create affordable housing for lower income families so they can share with the broader revitalization of their downtown.” News report By Bette McFarren of Ag Journal.
Edited by Ramon Luis Vazquez of Noticiasillescanos.com
