LANSING––Today State Senate Democratic Leader Mark Schauer (D-Battle Creek) announced that Jackson County is among twenty-one agencies in Michigan who have been awarded grants by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority’s (MSHDA) Housing Resource Fund. Jackson County will use grant funds for Homeowner Rehabilitation, restoring thirteen owner occupied homes and assisting eight homeowners with emergency repairs.

“With the costs of living rising, cash-strapped homeowners are struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments and often can’t afford necessary repairs,” said Schauer. “Through these grants, MSHDA has demonstrated its commitment to stabilizing our turbulent housing market by ensuring that Jackson County residents have the funds they need to maintain their homes, which ultimately benefits the entire community.”

Earlier this year, Sen. Schauer hosted three town hall meetings with MSHDA officials and other local agencies to help residents in Battle Creek, Jackson and Albion avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. He was also a leading co-sponsor on several recently-approved public acts to implement MSHDA’s ‘Save the Dream’ initiative, which allows struggling consumers to transition into affordable, fixed-rate mortgages and keep their homes.

MSHDA is a quasi-state agency that provides financial and technical assistance through public and private partnerships to create and preserve safe and decent affordable housing, engage in community economic development activities, and address homelessness issues. The purpose of the MSHDA Housing Resource Fund is to support projects designed to change the housing market of existing neighborhoods by making them more livable for current residents and more attractive to new residents, and to provide affordable housing for low and moderate income households. For more information on the Housing Resource Fund, visit www.michigan.gov/MSHDA.

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