AUGUSTA -- Bread of Life Ministries' plans to convert a local property into 24 rental units has received a major boost from a Boston-based cooperative of the region's financial institutions.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston awarded Bread of Life a $263,000 Affordable Housing Program grant. Officials at the Augusta-based nonprofit, faith-based organization plan to use the funds to renovate a property known as the Lawrence House on Grove Street in Augusta.

The 24 rental units will be reserved for low-income individuals. The grant money will help fund electrical system upgrades, a new furnace, energy-efficient windows and doors, and work on the foundation and roof, according to a statement announcing the grant.

"It's a great opportunity to take a facility in Augusta that needs a lot of work and turn it around and make it a place that's safe and secure for the neighborhood," said Dean Lachance, Bread of Life's director of community relations and development. "We're very excited about it."

Bread of Life entered a Federal Home Loan Bank-sponsored competition to win the grant. Kennebec Savings Bank helped the organization with its grant application.

The Lawrence House project is one of three major renovations Bread of Life has on its plate right now. The organization is also renovating Westman Village, a 30-unit low-income housing development on Littlefield Street, and a nine-unit transitional housing complex on Boothby Street.

"Not only do we change the facilities," Lachance said. "We also provide services to the people in them. Our goal is to help the clients get out of the cycle of poverty and homelessness."

Bread of Life runs a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, resource center and transitional and permanent housing programs for low-income and homeless Augusta-area residents.

Funding for the Lawrence House renovation comes at a time when there is heightened concern about low-income residents becoming homeless as landlords unable to afford to heat their units attempt to sell their properties or close them to tenants.

"We're very concerned about that trend and the need for some kind of joint effort in the city of Augusta to rally together and help that situation," Lachance said. "Just within our own properties, we're challenged to figure out how we're going to pay for the oil."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com