State Grant Program To Help Those In The Military!

It has been announced that a bill has been signed to increase the eligibility for assistance for armed forces members who are not currently on active duty.

This means that there will be increased funding for those in the military who are currently off duty and who are eligible to apply for this grant funding program.

The program provides money to help pay for essential personal or household needs!

Area Grant Money Goes Un-Used! Over $300,000 is provided yearly to help business get both inside and outside building assistance! Property owners can use this money, as can businesses with five-year (or longer) leases. The amount of money available differs from building to building. According to the director of this program, her frustration lies in the fact that she says she offers plenty of help for business owners downtown, but very few of them take advantage of it. For example one business was eligible for over $75,000 in financial assistance but only took $11,000! Another business, a surplus store, used the money for exterior restoration. In 2002, the windows were replaced on the second floor, and half of that was paid with a $9,750 city grant! A furniture store has taken a significant amount of city assistance -- over $93,000, for interior and exterior work. A restaurant has used more than $73,000 in grants for interior and exterior rehab. The restaurant remodeled in 2005, with a nearly $40,000 city grant to help. There is still over $100,000 left 2009! If the applicant can't get their application in before the due date then those applications are rolled over to the following year. Since the local area has a responsibility to keep the buildings up to code, that just gives them more of an incentive to provide money, grants and financial assistance for rehabilitation purposes. As a matter of fact if a business wants more money they are welcomed to submit drafts of development agreements as well! (as did one business developer!)

Homes And Businesses

Receive Grant Money

To Use

Alternative Energy Sources!

To help decrease their energy bills, places are using an alternative source of energy - wind turbines!

• One property owner uses a 5-kilowatt wind turbine which stands about 125 feet from his house. Since Jan. 1, he watched his electric meter go backward. He said the turbine generates more electricity than he uses, meaning he'll get a check from his utility company at the end of the year.
  
  

Higher electric rates, available grant money and a push for alternative energy from the state and federal governments have the winds of change blowing the turbines' direction. It's not just for large-scale wind farms but it is also an opportunity for individual landowners.

According to one state's law, 25% of the electricity sold by that state's investor-owned utilities must come from alternative energy sources by 2025. Of that, 12.5 percent must come from renewable sources, such as solar, biomass fuel and wind.

This is where the grant program comes along!

Both residences and small farms are eligible for a $25,000 grant if one of the state's four largest investor-owned utilities serves them. Businesses could receive incentives up to $150,000 for smaller turbines.

Then the federal government enacted a tax credit, where owners of small wind farms with 100 kilowatts of capacity and less could receive a credit for 30 percent of the total installed cost of a system.

The electric companies in the region allow people with wind turbines to connect their systems into their grids. One, buys back any extra power generated by a turbine and not used by the landowner for between 3½ and 4 cents per kilowatt hour.

Financial Grants For Sailors And Marines?

There is a non-profit organization that helps support Sailors and Marines and their family members in times of need! This support ranges from support for injury or death, household needs and car repairs. In addition to its financial services, this organization offers food lockers, layettes for newborns, classes and more.

Here is just a sampling of the kind of support that this organization has provided:

• A service couple was married in 2003. The spouse had had a kidney transplant in 1991, but the procedure had failed and the spouse was on dialysis now and had incurred over $4,000.00 in medical bills since the marriage, and had credit card debt totaling over $15,000.00 due to prescriptions and medical expenses. Subsequently the husband joined the Navy and the medical costs were covered! The service couple requested assistance from this organization for the earlier bills and the organization authorized assistance as a grant for the medical bills, and authorized an interest free loan for the credit card debt, to be repaid over a 24-month period.
  
  
• Another couple had difficulty adjusting to living within their income and started using payday lenders. The husband who was a petty officer got behind in his rent and also borrowed funds from loans which compounded their financial problems. The service member requested assistance from the organization for one month's rent, food and gasoline and funds to pay off six payday loans. The organization authorized the assistance as an interest-free loan. Repayment was deferred for 3 months and a repayment plan was set up for 10 months to minimize the impact on the family.
  
  
• A Lance Corporal, who was seriously injured in Iraq, was experiencing a lot of pain and having difficulty sleeping on his regular mattress at home. The Naval Medical Center conducted a sleep study and determined that the service member was able to sleep through the night on the TEMPUR-PEDIC mattress and foundation beds they have at the medical center. This organization granted funds for the purchase of a new orthopedic mattress.
  
  
• A service couple purchased a home 2 years ago, and they financed it with an interest only loan. The mortgage payments started out low, but soon escalated to $1,200.00 more than the original payment. The family started falling behind in payment of their bills. They needed help with car payments, medical bills, childcare, and also asked for help with food and gas. They lost their house to foreclosure and asked for assistance. The organization assisted with a loan for two car payments and grants of nearly $2,500.00 for their rent, food, childcare, gas and the family's cost share for medical and dental bills.
  
  
• Another service couple living in Navy housing had a fire destroy all of their household possessions. The cause was determined to be a defective air conditioner. The family requested help and were provided with an interest-free loan of over $3,600.00 for a new bedroom set for their young son, a mattress and box spring for the service couple, bed linens, blankets, pillows, towels, cooking and eating utensils, a chest of drawers, a dinette set, a couch, lamps and a microwave.
  
  (The service member had initiated legal action against the manufacturer of the air conditioner, and if a settlement was received the service member was going to repay the loan, but if his claim was denied then the entire assistance was going to be given as a grant.)

India - Startup Business Funding! There is an Entrepreneurial Program that has been put in place in such a way that the entrepreneur can find access to money and mentors in the same place. Given the limited pool of mentors, the candidates are filtered and selected, but on ventures that are very promising, there are individual angels within the chapter who have funded them. * There is yet another funding program that has been put together for entrepreneurs looking for seed money up to INR 50,00,000. The chartered members of this program and the likes have pooled in money and do invest on personal capacities on ventures they find to be of interest. This is applicable only to startups based out of Chennai, as of now.

Real Estate Company Gets Federal Money!

This $1 BILLION Dollar a year real estate company has built military housing for the U.S. armed forces in at least 18 states and has a backlog of more than $6 billion in future construction work. This is a fee-based real estate developement which brings a full range of services that include property management, construction, development and long-term maintenance and they collects fees for all of that work. They also put a small amount of equity into each of their projects. There are multiple income streams. It gives us a lot of diversity. The firm, which handles planning, construction and property management for military housing areas, is a leader in energy-efficient construction, too. This company has the ability to win government projects and grants while other real estate developers cope with tighter financing requirements and slower national home sales! The owner has been part of various developer teams working on military real estate projects and redeveloping closed bases. The company has also won another military project in Alaska!

Here's a little secret:

"On the day that we close on a project, we typically receive ownership to all the buildings and utilities and structures in the family housing area on the military installation."

*As I have said many times before, grant programs have been put in force to help with a compelling need - which in this case is about upgrading military housing. And this is something that is widely supported by the American public. Rose