Housing Rehabilitation Assistance Available

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS

Attractive, safe neighborhoods are a vital part of a community's overall economic development efforts. Although many factors contribute to a company's decision to expand or locate in a community, quality of life issues remain among the top considerations.

Ensuring the integrity of single family homes and encouraging neighborhood revitalization are goals of the Housing Rehabilitation Competitive Program, a component of the Community Development Assistance Program (CDAP) administered by the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs (DCCA). Under the program, communities may qualify for grants to assist low-to moderate-income people in rehabilitating their homes. The program requires that homes rehabilitated under the program meet at least the federal Section 8 Housing Quality standards.

Only units of local government — cities, villages, townships and counties — may apply for funding. Municipalities must have populations of 50,000 or less and must not be located in one of the six urban counties (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Madison and St. Clair) that receive funding directly from the federal government.

The maximum grant that may be awarded for each Housing Rehabilitation project is $400,000. Applications are judged competitively based on four criteria:community need (relative poverty and unemployment), project benefit (the extent of housing needs and impact of the proposed housing rehabilitation project), benefit to low-and moderate-income people, and resource leveraging (documentation that a portion of the project will be funded from other sources.) This resource leveraging can come from many sources, such as Farmers Home Administration programs or programs administered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority. Projects that provide at least 25 percent of the project costs from sources other than CDAP immediately rank higher.

This year, DCCA has allocated $7 million, or 18 percent of its $38 million CDAP program, for grants to local communities through the Housing Rehabilitation Competitive Program. The deadline to submit applications to DCCA for this year's grant awards is 5:00 p.m. on October 5, 1993.

To receive an application or learn more about the program, contact Eileen Denham at DCCA, 217/785-6142.

Page 20 / Illinois Municipal Review / August 1993