Jackson Free Press

Another group has come to the table in the struggle to fill empty houses in the Jackson area. The nonprofit Home Again Inc. is teaming with Hope Credit Union and Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas to do it.

The group held an Oct. 3 event to announce a $20,000 partnership grant from the FHLB and Hope Credit Union at the site of one of its renovations, a two-bedroom, two-bath home in the Fox Hill subdivision, just off of Bounds Road in Byram.

"We rehab properties and put them back on the market," Home Again Executive Director Phil Eide said at the event. "We'll be using FHLB Dallas funds for this purpose. The rehab cost per home ranges from a couple thousand dollars to $30,000 to $50,000. We've currently got five or six houses to complete. Home Again needs the (FHLB Dallas' Partnership Grant Program) funds to help with the rehab costs as well as the costs associated with holding these properties."

Through its agreement with Hope Credit Union, the organization can offer up to $35,000 for down payments to qualified potential home-buyers, Eide said.

"Our program does a couple of things," he said. "It makes the foreclosed properties that are currently sitting empty affordable to individuals, and secondly, it's improving the communities by taking the empty properties that might otherwise go to an investor and sit empty—possibly become a blight on the community—and putting families in those homes."

Home Again has rehabilitated more than 250 houses in Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina devastated the south half of the state.

Byram Mayor Richard White and state Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, both came out to support the project.

Blount said he's trying to schedule two events in November that he hopes will help citizens of south and west Jackson, as well as Byram, learn to use the right tools to navigate the finances of home ownership.

The first event is planned for Tuesday, Nov. 12, at Metrocenter Mall and will feature experts who can help citizens understand processes such as first-time home buying, improving credit ratings and avoiding foreclosure. The second event is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 14, in Byram.

"The event at Metrocenter will focus on west and south Jackson," Blount said. "It's not going to be people making speeches. We're going to have people there with tables set up to help citizens (deal) with their individual problems, whatever they are. We need to make people aware that these programs exist, and that they can take advantage of them."