The Town of Greece Residential Improvement Program (GRIP) has been a long-running grant opportunity for Town homeowners struggling to keep up with the cost of home rehabilitation costs. Funded by a Community Development Block Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, GRIP has helped countless Greece residents since its inception in 1974. The program has evolved and changed and, in recent years, the maximum grant amount was even increased to mirror the across-the-board increased costs of building material and labor, with major drivers like COVID-19 supply chain interruptions and inflation. As a result, and due to an ever-increasing number of applicants, requests for assistance surpassed the funding the Town received for this program.
In a roundtable meeting with other local nonprofit housing rehabilitation organizations, organized by Rochester Energy Efficiency and Weatherization (RENEW), a connection with ESL Charitable Foundation was made, and the Town was invited to apply for a grant to bridge the gap between the funds available from HUD and the demand for the program. The grant of $250,000 was applied for and received by the Town. As of August, the Town had already committed to funding twice as many GRIP applications in 2024 as it had in standard years, allowing the Town to clear the backlog.
“It was a perfect match between the Town’s mission with GRIP and ESL’s stated purpose of building strong neighborhoods in the greater Rochester area,” Supervisor Reilich said. “We’re thrilled to be able to serve more Greece homeowners with this expanded capacity. My sincerest thanks to ESL for supporting this worthy program for our residents”.
The Town’s vision for GRIP has long been to provide quality housing at an attainable price, to improve the Town’s housing stock, and to allow those on limited or fixed income to remain in their homes and in our community.
This 2024 program funding has been fully allocated and a new round of GRIP funding will be announced early this year with new applications accepted in the spring. The Town looks forward to continuing its relationship and communications with ESL with the hope of securing additional grants to support Greece’s GRIP program in the future.
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