Below or moderate-income residents who need to make home renovations may be able to get assistance from the Somerset County Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Housing Rehabilitation Program.

Applicants are particularly being sought in North Plainfield, Peapack-Gladstone, Rocky Hill and Bernardsville. However applications also will be accepted from residents of the nine other participating towns: Bernards, Bound Brook, Bridgewater, Green Brook, Manville, Montgomery, Raritan, Somerville and South Bound Brook.

The CDBG Housing Rehabilitation program provides assistance to eligible homeowners who need to renovate or replace substandard heating, electrical or plumbing systems. Program funds can also be used to make structural repairs, alterations to correct code violations, improvements designed to reduce operating expenses and other repair work necessary for upgrading existing homes to standard condition.

Block grant funds are used to provide as much as $20,000 of rehabilitation assistance to single-family homeowners who meet household-income criteria.
Funding for the program is provided by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

For more information, prospective applicants should call Housing Services Inc., the firm that administers the Somerset County CDBG Housing Rehabilitation program, at 1-800-553-2560.