Marlen Martinez’s three sons no longer have to hope water emerges from the faucet when brushing their teeth before school. Nor does Martinez have to hope enough water snakes its way through curled pipes to allow her to wash dishes.

In October,Martinez and her sons moved into a new brick home built by the city of Abilene and paid for, in large part, by federal funds.

The three-bedroom, two-bath home, about 600 square feet bigger than their old house, provides the family with “more room to stretch

out” and keeps the kids “from smashing against each other all the time,” Martinez said.

The Martinez family is one of 10 households for whom the city helped repair or rebuild houses between Oct. 1, 2010, and Sept. 30, 2011, the city’s fiscal year. Those families participated in one of three city-run housing services programs aimed at helping low- and moderate-income households find safe, decent homes.

Two of the city’s housing services programs — the critical repair program, which assists with home repairs that immediately threaten the life, health or safety of the inhabitants; and the limited and single-family rehabilitation and reconstruction programs, which provide financial assistance for repairs that aren’t necessarily immediately life-threatening — routinely can’t provide services for all who ask.

The critical repair program generally helps 24 or so households per year. Last year 98 households requested assistance.

The noncritical repair programs typically help between six and 10 households per year, about a fourth of all who apply.

For Martinez and her boys, the old house was a wreck. She moved there too hurriedly nine years ago, she now acknowledges, eager to move out of her parents’ home. The plumbing, a half-century old, was shot. Ditto for the wiring. The floor undulated and was weak in some spots. There was no insulation.

It was in such bad shape, in fact, that city officials said it was cheaper to tear it down and start over, resulting in a new, fully code-compliant home for the Martinez family.

“They love it here,” Martinez said of her sons’ opinion of their new home. “They think it’s a palace.”

Not everyone is eligible to participate in the programs, said Sandy Bowen, manager of the city’s Office of Neighborhood Services.

The primary criterion is based on household income limits, as determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The income level to participate in a HUD-funded program for a one-person household is $29,250. For a household of four, the number increases to $41,750 and goes up to $55,150 for a household with eight inhabitants.

To join in the critical repair program, participants must make 50 percent or less of the income limit for their household size. That’s because, with limited funds available, the program should help those who need it most, Bowen said.

The city coordinates with licensed builders to make repairs or, if a house is too shoddy, to tear it down and build a new one, as in Martinez’s case.

Workers tore down her old house in July, and she began moving into the new one about three months later.

For rebuilds, the city typically offers residents a long-term, low or no-interest loan as a way to pay for a portion of the project.

In Martinez’s case, she’s responsible for paying a no-interest loan for 40 percent of the $130,000 cost over the next 30 years.

Residents typically have to make at least 80 percent of the HUD-specified income levels to be eligible for loans, Bowen said. The higher income level indicates a higher likelihood the loan will be repaid.

A third program, the first-time homebuyers program, offers income-eligible Abilene residents a $3,000 grant to help with the down payment and closing costs of buying a home.

The program helped 11 households with down payments in fiscal years 2011 and 2010 and nine in 2009. Those numbers are down substantially from the 32 new homes the city helped folks purchase in 2005.

The decline indicates the effect of the 2008 economic downturn. Now households don’t have the ability to pay for the necessary maintenance or taxes required on a new home, Bowen said.

“Some people don’t need to be homeowners,” she said. “Owning a home is part of the American dream, but it’s not for everyone. It’s like owning a pet: Do you really want to do it right now? Are you ready? Can you afford it?”

This year Bowen and her staff budgeted $45,000 for the first-time homebuyer program, which could provide down payment assistance on 15 new homes.

Funding for the three programs comes from the federal government and is separate from local funds generated by property and sales taxes. Officials said that’s why the programs continue during the city’s tight budget years, like in early 2010 when city employees were furloughed for three days.

But the federal funds aren’t immune to downsizing. The recession, combined with a political push for Congress to decrease federal spending, has pared the housing services budget consistently year after year.

Community Development Block Grants — federal grant funds the city receives to use for expanding decent housing and economic opportunities in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods — have decreased for the past 16 years. In 1996 the city received about $1.6 million in CDBG funds.

This year funding decreased 16 percent from last year, to $983,773.

Another slice of the pie — funds from the Home Investment Partnerships Program, which fund only housing-related projects — has also gotten smaller. The federal program, known as HOME, started in 1996, when Abilene received $480,000. Over the next decade, that funding level increased because people saw the good it was doing to help people repair their homes, Bowen said.

But since then, the money pot has started to dry up. Despite inflationary price increases, the city’s HOME funding is now at about the same level as a decade ago, about $544,000.

Bowen, a city employee for nearly two decades, said she doesn’t anticipate federal funding to increase in coming years.

“It doesn’t look good. Tight budgets will get tighter. It’s the same with other cities, with all sorts of social service programs,” she said. “We’ll be able to help fewer and fewer people.”