Know a house in need of repair? This new Rockford program could help
ROCKFORD — Habitat for Humanity is teaming with Rockford and a local nonprofit to offer a $500,000 home repair program to low and moderate income families.
The program could pay for repairing broken windows, deteriorating porches and failing roofs for qualifying families.
City Council on Monday agreed to match a $250,000 contribution from the non-profit Rockford Housing Development Corp. utilizing federal American Rescue Plan Act money. It will fund what is being called the critical residential repair program and will be administered by the Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity.
"Doing projects like this are important to the city not only because of the improvement that it has directly on individual lives, but also on the structures and their neighborhoods," City Administrator Todd Cagnoni said.
It is estimated that the repair program could pay for about 50 home repair projects in Rockford assuming an average cost of $7,000 per project. It could fund more projects if the projects cost less. Each project is capped at a maximum of $15,000.
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To qualify for assistance, residents must be located in an area of the city impacted by the pandemic and meet income guidelines, Community and Economic Development Director Karl Franzen said.
Families must be at or below 80% of the area median household income to be eligible. That comes to $58,400 for a family of four. Program managers are still developing the application process, which will be announced when it is ready.
Franzen said the city has other home repair programs to assist low and moderate income families but those programs have far more regulations and limitations.
"This is a more flexible program," Franzen said. "With this, we are able to target repairs, stabilize homes, help families without necessarily bringing in all the regulations that our programs have."
Rockford Housing Development Corporation recently sold Concord Commons and is using the proceeds to invest in Rockford neighborhoods. This is the organization's first major investment since selling the 212-unit complex built in 1970, to Envolve Communities for $6.4 million.
Franzen said the built-in overhead expenses are necessary to market, administer and operate the program, which not only includes an extensive federal reporting process but also a requirement to conduct an application process, bid the projects out to contractors and perform an income verification.
About 30% of the funds being contributed are expected to spent on the cost of administering the program. An estimated $350,000 would be spent on repairs, $75,000 would be spent on a program manager and another $75,000 would cover program administrative expenses.
Franzen said the paperwork has to be able withstand the scrutiny of a federal audit.
"There are staffing costs and compliance costs in order to operate these programs," Franzen said. "The reality is that there are administrative costs to programs. We want to be able to do them right. We also want to deploy the money as efficiently as possible, absolutely that's a goal."
Jeff Kolkey: jkolkey@rrstar.com; @jeffkolkey
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Habitat for Humanity could pay for repairs on 50 plus Rockford homes
