WDAM - Channel 7 - Serving Hattiesburg, Laurel and the Pine BeltHub woman benefits from housing program

Hub woman benefits from housing program

HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) - A Hattiesburg woman who had lived in a dilapidated house has a new home tonight, thanks to a new partnership between the Hub City and the Salvation Army. Today, a ribbon was cut to officially welcome Alice Sanders back to her Ruby Street neighborhood.

She'll be living in a reconstructed home, built with federal dollars administered by the City of Hattiesburg and a grant from the Salvation Army. It's the first of 5 homes that will be built as part of Hattiesburg's Housing Reconstruction Program.

"Words can't express how I feel to have all these people and neighbors, my pastor, taking time to come up," said Sanders. "It's just so wonderful and I just thank God for them, because I know it was Him that's doing it," she said.

"It's funded 75 percent HUD (Housing and Urban Development) funding and then, the other 25 percent was funded through our partnership with the Salvation Army," said Franklyn Tate, Director of Federal and State Programs for the City of Hattiesburg. 

"This is the first opportunity that we've had to see this program come to fruition and again, we're really, really pleased with the outcome," Tate said. 

Reconstruction work on the program's next 2 houses is scheduled to begin within the next month.

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