The Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO) is holding a town hall informational meeting for Lewis residents, on Tuesday January 16 at 7:00 p.m. at the Lewis Activity Center. Officials say the purpose of the town hall meeting is to discuss the housing rehab application process with city officials and residents, in the target area. Staff will help any residents who would like to apply that evening fill out the application and give them examples of supporting documentation needed. Community Development Director Dan Lee said “We really wanted to have a face to face with as many of the potential applicants as possible, walk them through the application and explain the process of the program once they are income qualified. So many homeowners struggle to understand what we need, why we need it, etc. There is a lot of back and forth via the mail, telephone calls, and fax. We hope to eliminate that and expedite the entire process by helping them in the beginning.”

Lewis received a housing community development block grant to assist low to moderate income homeowners within a set target area in 2017. The grant is for $238,242 to repair six homes within the set target area. Each approved home is eligible for up to $24,999 in repairs. Lee said “This amount of money allowed per home through this program allows us to do much more than with our other forgivable loan programs. We may do a roof, siding, windows, etc.”

Community Development Block Grants are awarded annually by the Iowa Economic Development Authority with funding from the department of Housing and Urban Development. SWIPCO is a council of government serving the eight counties of southwest Iowa with public transportation, community development, and housing. SWIPCO is an equal opportunity employer, provider, and lender.