The house that had been home to Woodrow Almon Jr. over the last 30 years now sits empty of furniture or clothing or other personal items that might suggest it was abandoned. Mud-caked carpeting is piled in the carport and more has been dumped inside the flat at 113 Valley Circle Road in what used to be a bedroom. The interior walls are covered with mold stretching almost to the ceiling, thick with a dampness that won’t ever dry out completely. Everything in the house is covered in a fine layer of silt, making it seem old and red.

It’s been nearly four and a half months since floodwaters tore through the stretch of houses lining the creek on Valley Circle Road in Carrollton, leaving residents like Almon homeless.

While it hasn’t been determined whether the city will receive federal grant funding to purchase and later destroy the damaged homes along the road, an estimate has put the total cost of the project at about $1 million, according to Carrollton City Manager Casey Coleman. That funding would allow the city to purchase the homes from property owners, with the intention being to demolish all buildings on the land, ultimately converting it to green space.

To fund the work, the city applied in mid-January for a grant made available once the area was declared a federal disaster area. If awarded, the grant would fund the city’s efforts to purchase properties from homeowners and would also pay for the cost of demolition.

As part of the terms of the grant, all lands purchased by the city with the grant money would need to be permanently cleared of all buildings and allowed to return to their natural state. The grant, part of a damage-mitigation program, mandates that no structures can be built on the land once it’s cleared.

Coleman said the city encountered a potential problem with the application when it came time to assess the value of the respective properties, as any appraisal performed after the flood would show the houses worth little. The concern is compounded by the fact that the city had never participated in such a program before.

“This is certainly a new program for us, and I sort of got the feeling that it’s usually applied after hurricanes and things of that nature,” he said. “There was some concern initially about how much the houses would be valued at. Would it be what the houses were worth after the flood or would it be the pre-event value? We just didn’t know.”

Ultimately, the appraisal was conducted assessing the value of the houses prior to the event, and that, coupled with estimates for the work necessary to clear the land, brought the project total to $1 million. As prescribed by the grant, 75 percent of that would be paid by the federal government. Ten percent would come from the state, and the city would then be responsible for 15 percent of the costs, coming at $150,000.

The city will know if it has been awarded the grant by late spring or early summer.

The Carrollton City Council has yet to allocate funds for the project, though Coleman said everyone with the city recognizes how important it is to help those displaced by the flood to get back on their feet and back on dry land.

“They woke up in the middle of the night and this time was different than any other time — because these houses have flooded before. It was an eventual rise in the past, sort of slow, but this time it was different. It was a historic flash flood, certainly worse than we’ve ever seen,” Coleman said. “Some of these people weren’t able to get any personal belongings. They had to get out. They left everything in the house and had to evacuate and get out right then. So yes, it’s a problem for the city.”

Immediately after the flooding, the city and the Carrollton Housing Authority were able to use grant money to temporarily house many residents in hotels. That money has since run out, and residents have been forced to find living accommodations elsewhere.

Almon said he has spent the last few months staying with friends and family. But, he said, the fact he has a roof over his head provides little comfort when he thinks back to what he lost on a cool and rainy night last September.

“It’s like your whole dream went down the drain. Boom. That’s it,” Almon said. “All your hopes and all your hard work. You do it so you can go home and relax after the end of a long day. But then all of it’s gone down the drain.”