BELTON, Texas — Low-income families are often forced to live in homes that are in need of major repairs.
For years, Maria Garcia and her family lived in what can only be described as a house that was too damaged to live in.
”It was a lot,” said Maria’s daughter in-law, Debby Bilbrey.
“Winters were scary, pipers were always breaking — it was a lot of stress.”
Now they are one of two families who have received a set of keys to a new home where their old one once stood.
Thanks to the Home Program through the City of Belton and the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, two families are being effected for the better.
”It's income-based, and once they can complete an application, we run it through the cycle,” said Jo-Ell Guzman with the City of Belton.
“This can take about a year to a year and a half to complete if somebody qualifies to have a house built.”
Due to the costs to repair her home being more than the costs to build a new one, and because of Maria being considered low-income, her old home was torn down to make room for something new.
This made them one of dozens of families to get a new home through the program over the years.
”The city has been a participant in this program with Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for over 20 years,” said Belton's City Manager, Sam Listi.
“This will be the 35th and 36th home that we have dedicated as a result of the program.”
Maria Garcia and her family has the keys now, but the road to a new home wasn’t easy.
”She actually has been trying for a few years to do this program, and I just fought really hard to get her to do it,” Bilbrey said.
“There were a lot of challenges to get here but we got it. She wanted to give up and I was like, 'We can do it, we can do it,'."
”We just want to say thank you,” Bilbrey said.
“It was really hard work and we couldn’t have done it without them.”
For anyone in a low-income family where the cost of building a new home is less than the cost of repairing the home you currently have, head to the city offices and apply for the home program.
