Whitefish gets grant for housing

The Daily Inter Lake

The city of Whitefish has been awarded a $324,500 Community Development Block Grant to help first-time homebuyers.

The money will be used to provide down payment and closing-cost assistance to 10 first-time homebuyers purchasing homes in Whitefish.

Whitefish had the top-ranked application, Mayor Andy Feury said Monday, noting the Whitefish Housing Authority shepherded the grant application.

More than $2.6 million was awarded; other recipients were Butte, Ronan, Ekalaka and Lewis and Clark County.

This may be the last year CDBG funds will be provided to Montana communities, said Tony Preite, director of the Montana Department of Commerce.

"If Congress approves President Bush's federal budget, the CDBG program will be eliminated from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and a new community program [will be] enacted at the Department of Commerce," Preite said in a press release.

The exisiting program has been important to Montanans because of its flexibility, he added.

"Since 1982, this flexibility has allowed nearly $6 million in CDBG funds to be used in the Kalispell area and an additional $5 million to be used in Flathead County where they're needed the most," he said.