Hillsborough County<\/a> is opening the waitlist for a home repair program. It provides essential support to families who need urgent repairs and rehabilitation to address critical health and safety concerns. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\nTemeca Hicks has lived in her east Tampa home for about 13 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up over there, born and raised,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p>\n
It’s where her memories live, but she needs support to make it more comfortable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make it handicap accessible where the shower, I want a handicap shower and a bench, and the rails to my house, the ramps also,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p>\n
To do so, she’s applying for Hillsborough\u2019s owner-occupied rehabilitation program.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecial needs is one of our priority categories as well as the elderly and the repairs can be anything from an air-conditioning unit to a septic unit to windows, roofs, those types of things,\u201d Brenda Vallecilla with Hillsborough County said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The program is funded through Florida\u2019s State Housing Initiative Partnership.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program that we had last year had a total of about 85 clients that we were able to help,\u201d Vallecilla said.<\/p>\n
Right now, the waitlist is open with hopes of funding coming through around the start of hurricane season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole point of affordable housing is to be able to maintain and preserve the one thing that brings a family stability,\u201d Vallecilla said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s very expensive when you want to upgrade, but you don’t know when you’re going to become disabled or when it’s going to happen. It just happens,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p>\n
The program is open to people who own a condo, villa or single family home in unincorporated Hillsborough County. Your household income must be less than 80 percent of the area median income. For example, a family of four must make less than $83,450.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the cost of everything going up, this program is very helpful,” Hicks said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The county said it’s better to apply sooner rather than later, but right now, there is no deadline on when you can apply. \u00a0Here\u2019s a list of meetings you can attend to have someone help you with your application:<\/p>\n
Thursday, April 9: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 78th St. Library Community Room, 7625 Palm River Rd., Tampa, FL 33619\u00a0Monday, April 13: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Northdale Park & Recreation Center, 15510 Hooting Owls Pl., Tampa, FL 33624\u00a0Tuesday, April 14: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Bloomingdale Library Room 211, 1906 E. Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico, FL 33596\u00a0Monday, April 20: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Lutz Library Community Room, 101 W. Lutz Lake Fern Rd., Lutz, FL 33548\u00a0Friday, May 1: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Town ‘N Country Library Community Room, 7606 Paula Dr., Tampa, FL 33615\u00a0Thursday, May 14: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Gardenville Recreation Center, 6219 Symmes Rd., Gibsonton, FL 33534\u00a0Wednesday, May 20: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Balm Park and Community Center, 14747 Balm Wimauma Rd., Wimauma, FL 33598\u00a0 <\/p>\n
For more information on how to apply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The program provides essential support to families who need urgent repairs and rehabilitation to address critical health and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-221250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}