(AUSTIN) — The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (“TDHCA”) today announced that it has awarded a $1 million contract to the City of Eagle Pass to continue funding operations of the Maverick County Colonia Self-Help Center, a state-funded resource promoting homeownership and self-sufficiency for residents in five local colonias.

The contract will provide a wide range of technical and consumer assistance to an estimated 4,923 residents living in the following colonias: Las Quintas, Loma Bonita, Cedar Ridge #1, Morales #2 East, and Morales #2a.

The Maverick County Colonia Self-Help Center, one of seven along the Texas-Mexico border, supports the efforts of local colonia residents to improve their own living standards while making the most of limited housing funds. 

“The Department’s Self-Help Centers provide residents the skills and tools to improve their homes and communities through collaborative effort,” said TDHCA Executive Director Tim Irvine in announcing the contract. “Our state has a long history of working to better ourselves while offering a hand up to our neighbors in need. Together with the City of Eagle Pass, we look forward to continuing that tradition.”

City officials anticipate the funding will help reconstruct four homes through self-help activities, operate the center’s tool library and computer lab, provide 24 training classes on construction skills, flood and drainage projects, and provide solid waste clean-up in the targeted colonias.

The Colonia Self-Help Center Program is funded by the federal Community Development Block Grant Program ("CDBG") through a Memorandum of Understanding between the Texas Department of Agriculture, which receives the state’s CDBG allocation from the federal government, and TDHCA.

For more information regarding the center, please contact City Manager Gloria Barrientos at (830) 773-1111.