This year, 18 Vicksburg residents who couldn’t otherwise do it received help with repairing or renovating their homes through a special grant program.

The Special Needs Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a grant program provided by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, which provides money to member banks in a community to help repair or renovate the homes of people on limited incomes by providing money to cover those costs. This year, the Vicksburg area received $175,000 to pay up to $5,000 for work on each of those 18 houses in town, said city housing director Gertrude Young, who added three local banks, Trustmark, BancorpSouth and River Hills, participated in the program.

One of the people benefitting from the program was Laura Jones, whose home on Spring Street was troubled by a leaking roof.

“I’ve been blessed,” she said. “I was able to have people come here and get things fixed. They really worked hard and went beyond to fix my house.”

This is one federal program that has proven to be beneficial to communities not only here, but across the nation.

Vicksburg has many older homes, and many are occupied by elderly residents and others who live on a fixed income and own their homes but are unable to make necessary repairs or renovations.

Some, like Laura Jones, have roof problems. Others have plumbing or electrical problems or maybe a section of the floor or a wall is in need of repair.

It’s programs like the SNAP grants and volunteer programs like Service Over Self and Seniors Helping Seniors that help people keep their homes up and allow them to stay in a familiar environment.

And like the volunteers who give their time for community projects that benefit others, we have to give the three banks participating in the SNAP grant program a “well done” for their efforts to help the community.

At a time when business communities are criticized for greed and mistreating consumers, it’s good to see businesses taking the time to participate in a program that can help build our community rather than ignoring the needs of those less fortunate.

Lets’ hope the SNAP program and local bank participation expands in 2017.