Housing rehab funds may be available for Bertha and Hewitt residents this fall
by Trinity Gruenberg
Public hearings were held in Bertha and Hewitt in March for the Small Cities Rehabilitation Program Grant.
Messina Owings, program manager for the Central Minnesota Housing Partnership (CMHP), explained how the grant works and how homeowners can obtain funding to repair their homes.
For the past few months, CMHP has been working with the cities of Bertha and Hewitt to obtain information. They have done a “windshield survey” to determine the conditions of local homes, gathering demographic data and sent out surveys to residents to see how much interest there would be to utilize the program.
Owings proposed to do 16 projects for a total of $386,400 for eight homes in Hewitt and eight homes in Bertha. Each project would have a maximum of $25,000 that is zero percent interest over a seven-year term. One-seventh of the total is forgiven per year. The loan is completely forgiven after seven years. . .