Focus on handicap access: Court OK’s $25K to CSA for needy residents

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La Salle County commissioners voted unanimously last month to forward $25,000 to the Community Services Agency’s Housing Preservation Grant for a project that improves local residents’ handicap access in homes.
In a lengthy presentation to the court in mid-June, CSA spokesperson David Ojeda Jr. said the county funds are used in the application for a grant through the US Department of Agriculture aimed at assisting the elderly, handicapped or economically disadvantaged in repairing their homes, but that only the locally sourced monies could be used for purchasing major appliances such as water heaters.
This year’s grant from the county is the same as was awarded to the program in 2022; Ojeda estimated that more than $170,000 was ultimately made available for handicap access improvements for the needy in La Salle and Dimmit counties.
Commissioners learned that needy households are identified or referred by staff at the county’s Elderly Nutrition Center. Ojeda indicated that the facility has been the CSA’s only source of reference in determining which local residents may benefit from having upgrades made to their homes.
Eligibility requirements, as prescribed by the USDA, include grant recipients owning the homes where repairs are made and not being delinquent on taxes. Eligibility is also based on household income, Ojeda said.
“A local resident has flooding in their home,” Commissioner Erasmo Ramirez said on June 12. “Is there any way you can help?”
“All our funding went into handicap access,” Ojeda said. “We really weren’t doing other home repairs.”
“The flooding is preventing accessibility into the property,” County Judge Leodoro Martinez III said of the resident’s difficulty.
“With USDA money, we may not be able to do that,” Ojeda said. “But with La Salle County money, yes. We submit flood maps. We need to show that the home is not in a flood area.
“Your money is flexible,” Ojeda said of county funds that are not limited to the same restrictions as a federal grant. He added that local funds may also be used to purchase electric stoves for the handicapped.
“Families do not have to be in the Elderly Nutrition Program to qualify,” Ojeda said, “but everyone we helped was in desperate need.”
The CSA representative said his organization has not conducted a survey to determine how many of La Salle County’s elderly, handicapped or economically disadvantaged residents own their homes.