CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs gave the colonias Self Help Program $500,000. Money which can be used to help the people in the colonias.
Patricia Reyes has lived in a Colonia near Driscoll for over 30 years and says they have been in desperate need of help for years.
"It's concerning. It's a safety hazard. A home doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to be comfortable and clean and safe,"Reyes said.
The colonias selected for this Self Help Program are Cindy Park, The Ranch, Bluebonnet, Ja-lin, and Rancho Banquete.
The purpose of this program is to help residents in these colonias improve the infrastructure in their homes.
"They will be able to go and rent out equipment and we are talking pretty decent equipment that can help with placing sheetrock or placing mortar for bricks, kind off your more construction materials that you would use to build a new house," John Marez, Nueces County Commissioner Precinct 3 said.
Marez said previously in the state of Texas there were only seven colonia self-help centers, and those were all along the border.
Now, with this project, this is set to change.
"With the help of our local delegations, Nueces County is now the eighth in the state and we are the only county that we are not alone the U.S. Mexico border," Marez said.
Marez said the project is set to launch in 2026, but this is only the first step to much more that needs to be done.
"We want to help improve the infrastructure like the streets, our streets, and roads access to homes, water issues, water quality issues are so big, so many people struggle without water, so to be able to connect them to more sources of water that are more reliable," Marez said.
"I would like for everybody to live in a safe healthy environment, that their homes are safe," Reyes said.
The county is looking for a third-party organization to help manage the program
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