Carbon County officials want to try and help more people through the home rehabilitation program.

On Thursday, the commissioners approved change orders to the three projects in the program this round. The change orders with the Service Team of Lehighton include decreasing what work is done at each of the homes.Commissioner William O'Gurek said that the county is glad it has such as a program in place to help low-income residents, but feels it can help more families that are currently on the waiting list."We have over $300,000 sitting in our affordable housing fund to do these projects and today it's about $30,000 for three homes," he said. "We can do 10 times that if we could move the paperwork along."He said that Carbon is looking at doing another round of rehabbing projects with hopefully 10 recipients this time.There are currently close to 200 homes on the waiting list for the program, but it comes down to getting everything in order, as well as finding contractors to do the work."We often open bids and they are the same people, not saying the contractors are bad, they do good work, but oftentimes there aren't enough contractors willing to take these jobs," O'Gurek said.He added that the county is making one change to the program in that a bid bond will not be required anymore when contractors bid on the projects. Instead it will be through proposals.The home rehabilitation program started in 1994.The recipients, who remain anonymous as part of the program's process, can receive up to $12,000 in funding through Act 137, which is generated through fees charged for the recording of documents in the Record of Deeds office. Those funds are then used to repair necessary items in their homes such as heating systems, roofing, siding, or electrical and plumbing systems.