Fort Bend Corps

To qualify for a free repair, a person must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident and a homeowner living in Fort Bend County. The applicant must also meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of low income and either be 62 years or older or be disabled. When an application with sufficient documentation is submitted, Fort Bend Corps has the home assessed.

“We have to do a very extensive background check on the home,” Castillo said.

Taxes and mortgage payments must be current, an environmental review is required, and houses 50 years old or older must be checked to see if they have any historic significance, which could dictate what is allowed to be done to the house, he said.

“We’ve got to make sure that Santa Anna didn’t sleep in that house or something,” Castillo said.

Fort Bend Corps started with a group of volunteers improving an area on 5th Street in Stafford. The neighborhood included mobile homes on a dirt road, and when it rained, local children would have to be driven or carried to get to or from school, Castillo said.

The nonprofit’s volunteers paved the road, and moved and installed foundations under the trailers. They discovered a need for other improvement projects in the area, he said.

Fort Bend Corps receives federal, state and county grants as well as donations, so Castillo said the organization tries to be good stewards of that money and get as much done as possible.

“Most of the time when I tell a grantor we’re going to do 20 projects, we do 24, 25 projects,” Castillo said.

The organization has completed about 175 projects in Sugar Land and about 75 projects in Missouri City, Castillo said.

Leonhardt said areas in the county that need the most help are often hidden from view.

“We travel those roads that are less traveled so that those people are not forgotten,” she said.