New Foundations gets a $30,000 grant

The money will allow the organization to help local veterans with home improvements.

DBell@CalhounTimes.com

New Foundations Development Inc. received a $30,000 grant from a joint effort with the Home Depot Foundation and the Housing Assistance Council recently to help two local, low income military families with home improvements, but Program Manager Carol Hatch said the organization still needs more funding.

“We’ve got quite a long waiting list,” Hatch said, noting that one family had already been selected to benefit from this grant, and a second one would be picked soon. “We are thankful, but we need more.”

New Foundations is a nonprofit created by the Calhoun Housing Authority that has been serving veterans with home rehabilitation since 2013 with the help of NorthSide Bank and North Georgia National Bank.

“We are seeking funding from other sources so that we can keep our veteran families living in safe and affordable housing,” said Gail Brown, executive director of the Calhoun Housing Authority.

To date, New Foundations has rehabbed more than 200 homes, most of those belonging to veterans. The group does a little bit of everything, from roof repairs and plumbing to replacing windows and doors and even helping make homes more handicap accessible.

Hatch said New Foundations used to benefit from a Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta program, but that company made cutbacks recently that eliminated the help the local organization was receiving. That had been the group’s main source of funding, so now they are busy applying for grants from other sources and seeking donations.

GRANT,

“We’re looking at other grants and trying to get funding so we can help more people,” said Hatch, adding that there is a great need in Gordon County.

Brown said New Foundations has helped local homeowners who weren’t veterans as well, including many senior citizens, but they have recently turned their efforts more toward men and women who served their country.

“Working with the veterans, they were so appreciative and so easy to work with that we continued to focus on them,” she said.

Both ladies emphasized that donations are accepted and can be mailed to or dropped off at the office at 607 Oothcalooga St. in Calhoun.

“There are people who are suffering without heat or air conditioning, people in need of wheelchair ramps, even water heaters, because there are people who have gone months without hot water,” Hatch said.

For more information about the New Foundations Veteran Program, call Hatch or Georgetta Frazier at 706-629-9183, extension 14.