• Training will build foundation for home construction.

By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

Helping individuals build the credit foundation to buy a home is nothing new for the DREAM Center.

Since 1994, the local nonprofit has sponsored classes on home ownership, among other programs, but Monday night the center was presented a $75,000 grant to expand its capabilities to include administering housing grants.

“This is an opportunity for you and a nonprofit to partner together,” Gloria Nance Simms with the Division of Community Assistance (DCA) told the Columbus County Board of Commissioners before presenting the $75,000 check.

The grant covers some basic operating expenses but is ultimately for the purpose of training staff to become experienced in home construction.

“We’re looking forward to it and I’m real excited,” she added, pointing out that after 24 months the goal of the grant is for the organization to actually apply for a Community Development Block Grant through the DCA and administer a housing project.

Two staff members, including Director Evelyn Troy, are certified and have completed training in housing grant administration at the N.C. Institute of Government, but the capacity building grant will give them the experience they need, Troy explained.
The county has two different types of CDBG grants underway, with as much as 10 percent of the funding going to firms hired to administer the grants.

“That’s money that could be coming back to Columbus County,” Troy pointed out.
The DREAM Center is partnering with the Metropolitan CDC in Washington, N.C. to gain some of the needed experience. Metropolitan has constructed homes in North and South Carolina and has a great deal of experience in housing, Troy said.

The goal is to build attractive, affordable and energy efficient homes, she added.
Energy efficiency is important because so many are overwhelmed with excessive utility bills that make owning and keeping a home difficult, Troy said.

“We will build according to what they can afford — well constructed homes that build equity,” Troy explained. “So many homes do not build value.”

Seats are available in the center’s home ownership classes. “Anybody with income of any kind may not be able to qualify now but we can help them to become qualified,” Troy said of the classes that teach individuals ways to improve their credit rating and other steps to becoming a homeowner.

For more information or to register for the classes contact Evelyn Troy at 642-0633.