TUPELO, Miss., April 27, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An 81-year-old widow living on a fixed income is a recent beneficiary of a Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP) grant from BancorpSouth and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas). The $4,760 grant assisted Minnie Adams, from Tupelo, Mississippi, with costs for a new roof and other necessary home repairs.
Ms. Adams said a woman at her church alerted the congregation about the SNAP program. Ms. Adams said she approached the woman after church to learn more about the program and the application process.
"SNAP has meant the world to me," she said. "It was going to be hard for me to get this done. It is a good thing for the elderly. There is so much you can't do yourself, especially on a fixed income."
Besides replacing a leaking roof, Ms. Adams said her SNAP grant paid for repairs to her shower, which had started leaking and was damaging nearby carpet.
In 2010, FHLB Dallas set aside $1.5 million of its annual Affordable Housing Program (AHP) funds for SNAP, a rehabilitation program available through FHLB Dallas member institutions to provide grant funds to assist income-qualified, special needs homeowners with necessary home repairs and modifications. Each SNAP recipient is eligible to receive up to $5,000. If a member financial institution contributes at least $350 toward costs associated with the rehabilitation, the homeowner is eligible to receive up to $7,000 from FHLB Dallas.
Christy Minton, fair lending officer at BancorpSouth, said the SNAP program, while still new, has already proven itself a great success. The bank has been involved in other FHLB Dallas community investment programs, such as the Homebuyer Equity Leverage Partnership (HELP) and the Affordable Housing Program (AHP), for a number of years.
"We saw how wonderfully SNAP worked with that first round in 2009," Ms. Minton said. "There is such a great need for this type of grant funding, and we found that the money moved even faster than other FHLB Dallas grant programs."
BancorpSouth partnered on the SNAP grants with the nonprofit Neighborhood Development Corp., whose mission is to provide safe and affordable housing to Tupelo residents.
This year, BancorpSouth has requested $93,635 in SNAP grants and has received $76,280 in funding to date. In 2009, the first year of the program, BancorpSouth facilitated 20 SNAP grants totaling approximately $97,000.
"Those receiving SNAP grants are low-income residents who don't have other resources for making critical home repairs," said Peggy Woods, a Tupelo city employee with the Department of Development Services who works with Neighborhood Development Corp. to disburse SNAP funds.
"I get calls constantly with the roof leaking or no heat or air-conditioning in the house," Ms. Woods said.
For more information about FHLB Dallas programs, please contact the Corporate Communications Department at 214.441.8445.
About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 12 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $65.1 billion as of December 31, 2009, is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community development by providing competitively priced advances and other credit products to more than 900 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Texas. For more information, visit the FHLB Dallas web site at fhlb.com.
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3013
About BancorpSouth
BancorpSouth, based in Tupelo, Mississippi, has been serving customers for more than 130 years. It has grown from operating in a hardware store in Verona, Miss., to about 286 banking and mortgage locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. In addition to providing traditional banking services, credit cards, mortgages, trust and fiduciary services, the company provides investment services through its subsidiary BancorpSouth Investment Services Inc. and insurance services through its subsidiary BancorpSouth Insurance Services Inc. Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BXS.