FOLEY – Homeowners in Foley and throughout Alabama whose residences were damaged by Hurricane Sally or Hurricane Zeta in 2020 can now apply for grant money to help pay the cost of repairing any remaining damage.
The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the Home Recovery Alabama Program. The program provides money to help property owners repair, reconstruct or replace single-family homes that were damaged by one or both storms.
Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provide the money for the program.
Four intake centers are open across Alabama to assist property owners seeking funding.
In Foley, the center is located at 200 East Laurel Ave. (U.S. 98)
Other centers are at 110 Montlimar Drive, Suite 299 in Mobile, 1455 College St. in Jackson and 124 Broad St. in Selma.
Centers are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Information about qualifications and documents needed to apply are also available at HomeRecoveryAL.com. Applicants can download the Alabama Home Recovery app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store or call (251) 265-7958.
Low-to-moderate-income homeowners and landlords with rental homes in the nine counties designated as most impacted by the 2020 hurricanes may apply at HomeRecoveryAL.com starting today. Those counties are Baldwin, Mobile, Clarke, Dallas, Escambia, Marengo, Perry, Washington and Wilcox. Homeowners and landlords must have owned the property when the hurricanes made landfall in the fall of 2020 and must still own the home.
“Hurricanes Sally and Zeta impacted many homeowners and landlords who still have not been able to repair their properties,” ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said. “This program will help them make the necessary repairs and resume a normal life.”
Last year, HUD and Congress allocated $501 million in funding to the state to assist with unmet hurricane recovery needs. A total of $280 million has been allocated to the Home Recovery Alabama Program – $42 million of the Home Recovery Alabama Program funds have been set aside to serve rental properties and $238 million is dedicated to serve low-income homeowner-occupants. The remaining funds will be made available to the above-mentioned counties to carry out projects that are not single-family housing and may include infrastructure, housing, economic development and mitigation from future disasters.
If an application is approved, the funding is a grant, not a loan, and does not have to be repaid as long as applicants comply with the terms of the grant and the program rules. Funds are provided to repair unrepaired storm damage. Reimbursement for repairs already completed is not eligible.