MOULTRIE, Ga. — About 50 people attended a public hearing Thursday evening to learn how to apply for money to repair their homes.

The event was the latest step in a long process that started when the City of Moultrie was awarded a Community Housing Investment Program grant for $306,000 almost exactly one year ago.

Brenda Wade, grant administrator for the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission, is the one who applied for the grant, which is administered by the state but funded by the federal government. She’s also the one who has to “jump through the hoops” to bring the grant to fruition. She’s administering the same kind of grant in 11 communities throughout the region.

Wade was the primary speaker at Thursday’s hearing at the City of Moultrie Municipal Building, and she explained the steps residents will still need to go through before work can start on their houses.

The next step, obviously, is the application. Residents at Thursday’s meeting signed in with their names and addresses, and within the next two to three weeks Wade’s office will mail them the application packet. Anyone who did not attend the meeting but would like an application can contact the city clerk, Tina Coleman, or assistant clerk, LaDene Foster, at (229) 668-0022.

The application packet requires supporting documentation to see if the resident meets specific requirements:

• Proof of identification, such as a driver’s license, passport or other form of picture ID.

• Proof of residence, such as a utility bill. The grant is specifically for residents within the city limits of Moultrie; residents outside the city limits don’t qualify.

• Proof of household income. The grant is intended for low-income families. Eligibility is based on the income of every person living in the home.

• Proof of property ownership. The person applying for the grant must own the property (paying a mortgage is OK, but renting is not). A copy of the warranty deed is available from the Clerk of Court’s office at the Colquitt County Courthouse, usually for a small fee.

• Proof of paid property taxes. Property taxes must be up-to-date or the property does not qualify.

• Proof of property hazard/fire insurance. Insurance must be up-to-date or the property does not qualify. Ward mentioned one possible exception: If the property’s condition makes it uninsurable, a letter from your insurance company stating that may provide grounds for a waiver of this requirement.

Applications will be assessed on a first-come, first-served basis.

The next step for the Regional Commission is to verify everything in the application. Providing the required documentation during the application process makes this step go more smoothly.

The Regional Commission will then send a private consulting firm to determine what work will be required at the home to bring it up to current building codes.

Meanwhile, the commission is gathering other required information: What’s the property’s fair market value? Where is the property in relation to airports? To wetlands? How old is the house? If it’s more than 50 years old, does it have any kind of historical designation?

Photos of the home are taken, both overall photos and close-ups of the areas needing repairs.

“Once the application is submitted to us, it’s still a process,” Ward said. This part of the process is expected to take 60 days.

Once all that information is verified and collected, the Regional Commission forwards the application to the state Department of Community Affairs. Ward said the department usually issues a pre-setup order in about two or three weeks. That allows the Regional Commission to hire a state-certified contractor. But, she said, there is a shortage of contractors who have met the state’s requirements for certification. That can delay progress to the next step.

“There is a lot of contractors who can do the work — and do good work — but they’ve got to be state-certified,” she said. She brought information packets to the meeting for any contractor who wanted to seek state certification.

With the contractor on board, the Regional Commission has to determine the cost of repairs. While the grant is for more than $300,000, it limits how much can be spent on any one house to $49,000.

Once a budget has been agreed upon, the Department of Community Affairs will usually give a notice to proceed within 60 days.

“Once we go into a house, nothing is left undone,” Ward said. Unforeseen changes are expected, and the Regional Commission partners with a variety of other agencies, including the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to cover those expenses even if they exceed the $49,000 per house limit of the CHIP grant.

Ward said the commission’s goal is to start two houses then start a new one each time one gets finished. The $306,000 grant typically pays for six or seven houses.

After the work is done, the grant requires the commission to get a new appraisal of the property because the state wants to know what the result of the work was. That’s when homeowners sometimes get a shock.

Based on the new appraisal, property tax and homeowner’s insurance costs may increase, Ward said. Utility bills will almost certainly go down because the house is more energy-efficient. She said the commission talks with homeowners early on to try to prepare them for these cost changes.

The homeowner may have maintenance chores they didn’t have before, such as changing filters every month on a central air conditioning unit or cleaning gutters.

The contractor’s work has a one-year warranty. If a new heating and air conditioning unit was installed, it usually has a 5- to 10-year warranty, depending on make and model.

“These homes are definitely like new when they’re finished,” Ward said.

As she neared the end of her presentation, Ward warned that the funding process is competitive. Applicants can and do get turned down by the state. Of six homes the commission submitted Dec. 1 for other communities with the same kind of grant, she said, only three were funded.

Ward did not estimate how long the process would take but said the grant expires July 31, 2019, so all repairs have to be done by then.

“It takes a long time to get up and going,” she said, “but we finish up really quick.”