Central Illinois Land Bank Executive Director Mike Davis has made a pitch to the Vermilion County Board Finance Committee for a $500,000 investment for a Homeowner Occupied Rehab program. Davis says in Vermilion County’s smaller communities, there are too many homes that could be salvageable; thereby keeping homeowners in them, keeping the homes in the family, and therefore, keeping the homes as part of the tax base; instead of allowing them to deteriorate until the only choice is abandonment and then demolition.
The homes, Davis says, would become an asset to their communities, not a liability. Davis also says the idea is to stop leaving state grant money on the table, when an investment like this on the county’s part could create a pipeline of state grant money, allowing these homes in small communities that don’t have a program in place for this type of initiative, to survive.
AUDIO: And this is all about having a proactive approach. So we’re using these funds, the ARPA funds, to invest in our existing communities, help neighbors that wouldn’t have been able to do the rehabs themselves, and make sure we keep homes on the taxroles. Because once you do a demolition, sometimes you never get that property back on the taxroles.
Davis says an example would be a senior couple on a fixed income, being allowed to stay in their home and then perhaps keep it in the family for many years. Davis says this program would only be for homes where the homeowners still live there, not rental properties. Davis plans to make his presentation to the full County Board at their Tuesday, November 16th meeting, and hopes a vote is taken that night with a positive result.
