Multiple Government Entities Give Two Noxubee Families New Homes

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Two Noxubee County families get the keys to their new castle.

They’re the recipients of a grant from the “HUD HOME Program.”

The selection is highly competitive, making *two* families being selected in one county just a little more unusual.

If you ever pass an old, beat-up house, you might ask yourself “How can someone live like that?”

It’s a reality Supervisors in Noxubee County see every day as they drive through their districts.

“There are a lot of people across my district that their living conditions is really below quality,” said District 5 Supervisor, Bruce Brooks.

Brooks along with District 1 Supervisor, Larry Tate are working to change that, one family at a time.

“We know the people in our district. We know what they need,” said Tate.

By working with Golden Triangle Planning and Development and the state, two families are getting upgrades.

It wasn’t easy, though.

The HOME program managed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gets hundreds of applications sent to Jackson, and only 30 to 40 are selected.

“We have to weed through those applications, look at them and find the ones that are in the most need,” said GTPD Program Coordinator, Spencer Broocks.

The first of the two families is Joe Johnson Jr, a man living in Tate’s district. He is overjoyed with his new home.

“Oh! I felt good,” said Johnson. “I felt like I was born again. You see what I was in, now, look at it. And so I feel good inside, and I appreciate them and thank them for putting me in there.”

The second is Dorothy Mallard, one of Brooks’s constituents, and her path to a home is a bit of an emotional roller coaster.

“He said he couldn’t get the house,” said Mallard, “and then he turns around and say ‘You know what? We’ve got great news for you. We can get signed up for the house.”

“There was some hiccups going through the process, and once we got all of that done and her name was put in the selections process that’s when I let her know she was at least in the running,” said Brooks.

Mallard had lived in the same home her entire life.

Finally being able to move in to a brand new home had her in tears.

“It’s a blessing from glory to God that I’m in here,” said Mallard. “I’m in the new house, coming from the old house to the new house. I am blessed.”

It may only be two families right now, but county leaders are calling it progress.

“It really makes you feel good, especially whenever you see the condition that the homeowners are in prior to receiving the home, and then once the home is built and complete you see the excitement on their faces,” said Broocks.

“I like to see them in the house and moving around and stuff. It just makes me feel great as a supervisor,” said Tate.

With only about $3.5 million dollars a year, the program is looking to specialize in renovation projects instead of building from the ground up in hopes of giving even more people quality living.