Dixon City Council earmarks $200,000 for housing rehabilitation program

DIXON – The Dixon City Council is moving forward with a plan to set aside $200,000 that could be used to create a housing rehabilitation program for homeowners wishing to repair and enhance their properties.

The housing discussion took place during a March 6 City Council budget workshop, when council member Mary Oros proposed budgeting money that would help homeowners, who live in their home, to improve their properties. The housing rehabilitation program, in its early planning stages, would hinge on a pool of money that residents could apply for based on criteria that has yet to be set.

She brought up the creation of such a program as the council was deciding how to distribute funds to nonprofits based on requests made during the formulation of the fiscal 2025 budget. Oros said she wanted to bring up the possibility of setting aside housing rehabilitation money as the council was deciding where it would be allocating funding for nonprofits.

Oros said she has been meeting with economic development officials and City Attorney Rob LeSage to discuss options on how to put together a housing rehabilitation program to assist homeowners who live in a certain distressed census tract and would have to meet income eligibility criteria to qualify.

Oros said she was not committed to a certain amount to set up the housing rehabilitation program, and mentioned the council, if it decided to move forward with the program, could allocate an amount it deemed to be reasonable as a placeholder within the budget.

“While I think this is a viable program to get off the ground, in partnership with the Sauk Valley Bank Foundation, [which] obviously would be a conduit to help support a housing rehabilitation program like this,” she said, adding she didn’t have all the details about how the program would work. “I’m asking for us to identify this potentially is an option for us to utilize this funding and to earmark it for projects that we may be able to then come back to the council for as we get a little more information. Are you comfortable with at least identifying that we’d like to reserve a portion?”

Council member MIke Venier asked what amount Oros was seeking. She said she had not settled on an amount, whether it should be $100,000 or $250,000..

“But we have to start somewhere,” she said.

City Manager Danny Langloss said the Sauk Valley Bank Foundation, through the program, could help homeowners who want to rehabilitate homes in the southwest end of Dixon. He also said the foundation would be able to use the pool of money as matching funds when applying for state and federal grants. The money would come from the Community Development Fund if the council moves forward with creating the program, Langloss said.

He said that once the council takes a vote to set aside housing funding, it would take three out of the five council members voting yes to earmark it. If the council would decided to come back in and add more funds, it would take four yes votes to increase the amount.

Oros said much more work needs to be done to set up the program, and that LeSage is working on the legalities.

“Housing rehabilitation is a long game and we have to be committed to chipping away at that every year,” Oros said.

Council member Chris Bishop wanted to start with earmarking $100,000 since the council is just piloting through the program. Venier proposed $200,000, an amount the rest of the council agreed to earmark as a placeholder in the budget. The council is still working on the budget, but it is to be completed and put to a council vote in April.

The council would have to take another vote in the future to formally create the housing rehabilitation program.