Williams Delight Residents Receive $15,000 Grants for First Homes

Senator Marise James delivers grants to aid longtime residents in achieving homeownership, highlighting the importance of community advocacy and the transformative power of economic security

Last March, Senator Marise James heard for the first time about the struggles some residents of Williams Delight were facing in their quest to become homeowners. In May, she announced a groundbreaking program to smooth the journey for some. On Monday, the lawmaker presented twenty residents with $15,000 cheques - grants to be used in the purchase of their first homes. Many receiving the grants had been living in the community for decades – one man now on his way to homeownership had been a resident for 47 years.

“I want to begin by thanking the governor for agreeing to the letter I sent him,” Senator James said to the small crowd assembled in the Frits. E Lawaetz Legislative Conference Room on St. Croix. The letter, she said, reminded him of a program extant since 1995 that some people had not yet been able to access, “because we all don’t have the same life and circumstances and events that happen in our lives.”