Decatur launches home repair assistance program
DECATUR — Starting Monday, some Decatur homeowners will have a chance to apply for grants to fund their home repair projects.
The city of Decatur on Thursday officially launched its new owner-occupied Small Home Improvement Program (SHIP), a grant program aimed at low- to moderate-income homeowners in Decatur’s urban core.
City officials hope the project will lead to improvements in some of Decatur’s declining housing units.
“Neighborhood revitalization has been a huge goal of the Decatur City Council for many, many years, but that’s about more than just tearing down abandoned houses and old buildings,” said Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe. “It’s about trying to build up the community.”
The city’s goal, Moore Wolfe said, is not to demolish everything but to “regrow these neighborhoods.”
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Moore Wolfe and other city officials on Thursday presented a $450,000 check to the Northeast Community Fund, which will provide the grants to Decatur residents.
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The council approved the funding earlier this month. The program is just one of many neighborhood revitalization efforts funded by the city’s federal American Rescue Plan monies.
Northeast will begin to accept SHIP applications on Monday. Representatives from the organization said program will help improve the living conditions of many deserving community members.
“Given our organization’s mission, it was hard for us to hear that we had people in our community who wanted to stay in their home but live paycheck to paycheck, or better yet, on a fixed income, and could not afford to make the necessary or needed repairs to their homes,” said Angel Lawrence, Northeast’s executive director.
“Everybody has a right to food and to shelter,” said Taylor Hardy, the agency’s micro finance director.
Homeowners must meet multiple requirements to be eligible for SHIP, including owning a home in the designated neighborhood and being free of delinquent taxes or outstanding charges owed to the city of Decatur.
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SHIP will cover a variety of eligible home repairs including, but not limited to: roofs, porches and exterior steps, foundation and structural improvements, accessibility improvements for occupants with disabilities and lead remediation.
More SHIP eligibility requirements, including the designated neighborhood map and a full list of eligible and ineligible repairs, can be found on the city’s website.
Cordaryl Patrick, community development director for the city of Decatur, said the city has seen a decline in housing conditions over the past decade.
SHIP, he said, will help change that.
“This program is designed to assist our great citizens of Decatur with much needed assistance to improve their living conditions and change the narrative in generational culture, to say it is not okay to live in Decatur with a hole in your roof,” Patrick said. “It is not OK to live in a home in Decatur with lead and asbestos. It is not Ok to live in a home in Decatur with boarded up windows. It is not OK to live in a home in Decatur that has accessibility challenges and inefficient utilities.”
26 famous people who performed at the Lincoln Square Theatre
A look back
Bob Hope
In 2003, comedian Bob Hope died in Toluca Lake, California, at age 100.
Magician Harry Blackstone
John Philip Sousa
1929: John Philip Sousa, center, was a guest of the Rotary Club. He has brought his band and his dry wit to Decatur audiences at least a dozen times during the first three decades of this century. (H&R file photo)
Heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey
Heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey punches the heavy bag as spectators watch at his training camp at Saratoga Lake, N.Y., on July 6, 1927. (AP Photo)
Al Jolson
Actors, from left to right, Al Jolson, Douglas Fairbanks, Eddie Cantor, Ronald Colman (behind Cantor) and producer Samuel Goldwyn, use this unique telephone in front of Mary Pickford’s bungalow at a Hollywood studio on Aug. 23, 1932 to announce the making of a new motion picture. Miss Pickford is by the mouthpiece. (AP Photo)
Chico Marx
Four of the five Marx brothers, from left, Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo, pose in 1930. (AP Photo)
Lionel and Ethel Barrymore
Actors John, Ethel, and Lionel Barrymore are shown at a family reunion, 1932. The famous acting siblings appear together for the first time in “Rasputin.” (AP Photo)
Anna Pavlova
Famed Russian dancer Anna Pavlova with her teacher Enrico Cecchetti, date and location unknown. (AP Photo)
Russian pianist Pesetzki
Presidential candidate Hiram Johnson (1924)
Violinist Friedrich “Fritz” Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler, internationally famous violinist shown August 4, 1958, plays at a recital in London’s Albert Hall in 1932. Before he left the platform a few years ago, Kreisler had an uninterrupted series of triumphs in Europe, making many command performances for royalty. His popularity with American audiences was tainted because he served with the Austrian army in World War I. (AP Photo)
Johnny Russell
Ernest Tubb
Country music singer Ernest Tubb is shown in March 1980 (AP Photo)
Steppenwolf with John Kay
John Hartford
Musician John Hartford plays the banjo at his home in Nashville, Tenn., in this file photo from Aug. 1986. Hartford was a versatile and wry performer who wrote the standard “Gentle on My Mind.” (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters, entertainer, as he performed at New York’s Palladium Theater on Oct. 1, 1977, in a benefit performance for the New York Public Library to purchase rare blues records. (AP Photo)
B.B. King
1981: B.B. King, with his guitar Lucille, performed the blues – of which he is the reputed master – for about 1,000 people in concert at the Lincoln Theater in Decatur Sunday night. Although King is cutting down on concert appearances, he isn’t considering retiring after 35 years of performing. “As long as I have my health or until the Great Creator says that’s enough, I’ll keep playing” he told the Herald & Review. (Herald & Review file photo)
Pure Prairie League
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne performs at a fundraiser gala in Beverly Hills,Calif., on Sept. 18, 2006. Browne, Don Black and Dolly Parton were among that year’s inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, dedicated to recognizing the work of composers and lyricists who create popular music worldwide. The induction ceremony was June 7, 2007, in New York. (AP Photo/Mario Anzuoni ,pool)
Guitarist Steve Hunter
Here Come The Mummies
Here Come The Mummies heat up the stage.
V Shape Mind
Big Wreck
Pauly Shore
Contact Taylor Vidmar at (217) 421-6949. Follow her on Twitter: @taylorvidmar11.