Has anyone personally received a home improvement grant for their home?

Question

This question is only for grants writers that deal with home improvement grants or people who have personally received a home improvement grant (not a loan) for their home. I need to fix up my house and I cannot afford a loan and I need to know how I can get a grant. I know there are grants and grant writers out their who are legit. I need help to get pointed in the right direction! Please help.

Answer 1

I received a grant when I opened my practice. It was a long process, but not that difficult (just a lot of paper work).

When I started researching how to get a grant, there was a lot of garbage information out there. One of my professional friends recommended the kit sold at http://www.alllsite.info/free-grant-money.php . It's only $3.95 including shipping (it's the exact kit that was on CNBC and USA TODAY).

Good luck!

Answer 2

It is not easy to get a home improvement grant for an individual's home. The Housing and Urban Development in their Grants Available page makes it clear that they do not provide grants to individuals -- hence no grants for a person to buy a home or do improvements http://www.hud.gov/grants/index.cfm

"While HUD does not offer direct grants or loans to individuals, we do work through local governments and non-profit organizations to make financial assistance and counseling available."

You can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov - these are two FREE sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support your purposes.

Even if you buy books on "how to get grants" or list that supposedly has information on grants -- all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently.

Note though that these grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments. Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT - Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program. Individuals especially for personal purposes are not eligible for federal grants.

Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women's Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women's business center that will train women entrepreneurs

You can find all HOME IMPROVEMENT GRANTS on this page of the CFDA http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.FUNCTIONAL_PROGRAM_TXT_RPT.SHOW?p_arg_names=func_cat_cd&p_arg_values=MM -- note that most of them are loans, and not grants. The very few that are grants have very specific eligibility requirements. Fof example:

10.417 USDA Very Low-Income Housing Repair Loans and Grants
http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.PROGRAM_TEXT_RPT.SHOW?p_arg_names=prog_nbr&p_arg_values=10.417
OBJECTIVES: Section 504 loans and grants are intended to help very low-income owner-occupants in rural areas repair their properties.

15.141 DOI Indian Housing Assistance
http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.PROGRAM_TEXT_RPT.SHOW?p_arg_names=prog_nbr&p_arg_values=15.141
OBJECTIVES: To use the Housing Improvement Program (HIP) resources of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to eliminate substantially substandard Indian owned and inhabited housing for very low income eligible Indians living in approved tribal service areas. This effort is assisted by the Indian Health Service (Department of Health and Human Services) which provides water and sanitary systems for houses repaired or built with HIP funds.

Answer 3

not really