Applicants this year will be income qualified based on 2024 Poverty Guidelines and must use grant money to bring property into code compliance.
The property must be an owner-occupied, single-family residence. Applicants that received funding in rounds 1 and 2 of the 2024 HIRP do not qualify. Funding will be available city wide. Applicants may receive up to $5,000 in funding per household.
$250,000 will be made available through Community Development Block Grants, or CDBG.
Council decided in its last meeting not to provide a match of $250,000 from the city’s unappropriated general fund.
“We have a lot of pressing issues in the city,” Councilman Paul Lolli said, citing staffing, downtown building considerations and other projects. “I would really prefer that we refrain from putting any money from the general fund into this.”
Councilman Paul Horn and Mayor Elizabeth Slamka agreed with Lolli on using money from the CDBG fund for the program.
“It doesn’t mean that we can’t look at it again in the future,” Slamka said. “At this point, we have so many items that are pressing, it seems like the best choice.”
Slamka mentioned local organizations that are willing to help with “free or very low-cost labor.” She did not specify the names of these organizations.
Additional details for the upcoming third round of HIRP and dates for the application have not been released.
In 2024, homeowners received up to $8,500 in grant funding for costs incurred during the repair/improvement process.
The program was done in coordination with the city’s code enforcement crack down, which resulted in a two-week Code Enforcement District Sweep at the end of last summer.
The city appropriated $800,000 in ARPA funds for neighborhood improvement programs.
About $400,000 was left for HIRP after two Trash Bash dumping days and the first HIRP round in May 2024.
Of around 170 applications received, only about 60 were accepted either because of no additional funding or the project did not meet specifications.
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