For Steven Williams and his wife Cortrina, miracles can come for the most unusual sources.

In their case, it came from a local bank in the form of a $7,500 Haven grant to help them repair their home on Monroe Street and allow them to remain in it.

Housing Assistance for Veterans, or Haven, funds are used to help veterans or people on active-duty disabled by active military service since Sept. 11, 2001, to modify and improve their homes.

“The Haven grant covers five states, and this is the first one in Mississippi,” said Gertrude Young, the city’s housing director.

“I’m very pleased about this,” Steven Williams said. “Being the first sure feels good.”

“We tried to qualify 40 different veterans for this grant, but none of them qualified,” Young said. “Either their income was too high or they weren’t disabled.”

The grant program, which began in 2011 with a $250,000 initial offering by Federal Home Loan Bank in Dallas, and are given on a first-come, first-served, homeowner-by-homeowner basis.

The money can be used to help a qualified veteran modify or improve an existing home, help with construction costs for a new home, or pay for a third-party home inspection.

The maximum grant award is $5,000, but if an FHLB Dallas member or another lender contributes at least $350 toward the project, FHLB Dallas will grant up to $7,500 toward the work.

Earlier this year, however, a miracle seemed a long way off. The home, which had been in Cortrina Williams’ family for years was in serious need of repair.

“The whole back area of the house and the whole washroom and the back bedroom needed work,” she said.

“The roof needed to be replaced,” her husband added.

Money was tight. A Marine veteran of the Gulf War and a Navy veteran of the second Iraq War, Steven Williams was injured in 2007 while his Seabee battalion was placing a T-wall for a building in Iraq when the wall fell on him, injuring his back and putting him on 80 percent disability.

The couple had five children age 11 through 18, and he was the sole provider for the family working as a truck driver. Money was tight, and the problems with the house were so bad, the Williams were looking for a new home.

That brought the family to the attention of Young.

“Mrs. Williams came to apply for the first-time homebuyer program,” Young said. “We began talking, and I told her I thought they qualified for a Haven grant.”

“We called the Federal Home Loan Bank in Dallas to see is they qualified,” Young said. “When the bank said they did, we got them to apply for the grant. When it was approved, we went to River Hills Bank. They put up the extra $350 to make the grant amount $7,500.”

“We were aware of the grant, but the city, through Gertrude and Angela brought them to our attention,” said River Hills Bank president Joel Horton. “We’re glad we were able to help Cortrina and Steven with their needs.”