United Church Homes’ Cottonwood Glen Awarded Green and Resilient Retrofit Program Grant

United Church Homes (UCH), based in Marion, Ohio, announced recently that it has been awarded a Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) grant totaling $3,200,000 for Cottonwood Glen, a UCH affordable housing community in Greenwood, Miss. This award is a crucial step in UCH’s mission to preserve long-term affordability in housing.

“This award will a part of a large scale renovation and modernization for Cottonwood Glen,” said Kevin Deegan, UCH’s vice president of corporate ventures. “This award will be a critical component of funding for that future work, but it also represent the first step in a multi-step plan to generate the capital needed to complete a full rehabilitation of the property so that it can continue to serve the residents in the safest, highest quality, and most comfortable manner for many years to come. Most importantly, these renovations will allow UCH to maintain the affordable rent levels with no impact to the resident’s rental costs.”

The rehabilitation and “green” upgrade will be the first substantial rehabilitation since original construction, some 25-plus years ago.

The grant will help provide updates and improvements to such critical building systems as roofs, windows, HVAC systems, electrical systems, plumbing systems, insulation, drainage, and more. The GRRP grants are intended to provide property owners capital to not only renovate, but also to decrease the environmental impact from the property. Lower heating/cooling costs and lower water usage are two of the goals of these awards.

The grant is awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by way of a competitive application process. UCH has submitted 7 total GRRP applications. HUD was provided these funds as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in 2022.  

Work on the upgrades is estimated to begin sometime in 2025. In addition to the grant application for Cottonwood Glen, United Church Homes also submitted six other applications, which are still in the HUD review process. The next round of awards is due sometime this month.