Grant program helps mountain nonprofit assist hundreds with needs like housing costs

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    MADISON COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — A grant program is once again hoping to help nonprofits in the mountains.

Dominion Energy is accepting applications for its grants supporting critical community needs until May 31.

The Community Housing Coalition of Madison County (CHC) is a past recipient of the grant.

The nonprofit repairs homes, so people can stay in them, and two-thirds of CHC’s clients are seniors.

“It has been totally life-changing,” said Ann Geisel, one of CHC’s clients.

Geisel is one of the hundreds that have been helped by CHC.

“Our role in affordable housing is that part of it is to help keep people where they are — on their property,” said Cathy Dalton, the director of fund development and communications for CHC.

CHC was able to repair an elderly disabled couple’s home thanks to the grant from Dominion Energy.

“We were able to for a senior couple who literally couldn’t get in and out of their home we built a really nice deck, we built about a 12-foot ramp that goes out a back porch with stairs that they can easily keep up,” said Dalton.

The grant is given to eligible nonprofits who provide one or more of the following: housing and shelter, access to medicine or medical services or increased food security.

According to a 2019 report from the North Carolina Housing Coalition, 21% of homeowners in Madison County have difficulty affording their homes.

Dalton said grants like the one from Dominion Energy are essential to fighting the affordable housing crisis, one she said is growing.

“We find neighborhoods where homeownership is more and more expensive and less and less possible for a lot of people,” said Dalton.

CHC helped Geisel with home improvements, including a new roof, deck, flooring, and a new heat pump system.

Geisel said before the repairs, she had to use a hairdryer to thaw her old heat pump.

“All I have to do is go out and turn a heat lamp on or heater or something in the winter to keep it from freezing,” Geisel said.

Eligible nonprofits can apply online for the Dominion Energy grant through May 31.

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