NRHA provides grant to pay for home repairs.

A husband and wife in Maryland will soon have a safer home due to a grant from the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA).

NRHA awarded a $1,000 grant to The Fuller Center for Housing in Prince George's County, Maryland. The funding is paying to repair a disintegrating front porch on the home where an older couple lives, says Arthur Stroud, executive director for the Prince George's County Fuller Center.

"They're finally going to get this hazardous condition corrected that they probably wouldn't afford otherwise," Stroud says.

The husband and wife benefiting from the NRHA grant are senior citizens, and the man is a disabled military veteran, Stroud says.

County residents can apply for help repairing their homes, and The Fuller Center assesses whether the applicants can afford to pay for a project themselves.

The goal for the grant is to help senior citizens and disabled veterans, and the couple fit the criteria and showed a need, Stroud says. The Fuller Center for Housing is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating poverty housing worldwide.

The Prince George's County project plans include fixing the "falling down situation" of the home's front porch, painting part of the home's exterior and landscaping in the yard, Stroud says. Volunteers are doing the work for free for the $500 project, and they're buying supplies from Peoples Supply Co., a home Improvement business that is a member of NRHA.

The NRHA grant is helping The Fuller Center achieve its mission. "We can probably stretch a $1,000 grant into two or three projects, which is a great help to us and, of course, to the citizens we're trying to help," Stroud says.

NRHA is working with The Fuller Center for Housing across the country on a home improvement industry-wide effort to provide quality and affordable housing for families. HI