Rock Falls gets state grant to help rehab, demo abandoned residential properties

ROCK FALLS — Rock Falls again has won a state grant to help rehabilitate or demolish abandoned residential properties.

On Tuesday, Oct. 3, Rock Falls City Council members voted unanimously to accept a $103,000 Strong Communities Program grant. The Illinois Housing Development Authority created the program in 2020 to provide funds “to address affordable housing needs and community revitalization efforts,” according to IHDA.org.

This is the second time Rock Falls has been awarded the Strong Communities Program grant, City Administrator Robbin Blackert said. The city got $146,800 in the first round, according to IHDA.org.

“For years, decades actually, we’ve been getting grants through IHDA to fix up homes,” Blackert said, noting the city received multiple grants through the IHDA’s Abandoned Property Program over the years. “As those programs slowly go away, we keep evolving with them to get into the new programs.”

The Strong Communities Program grant will help the city pay bills it accrues associated with abandoned or foreclosed properties, she said. According to the IHDA’s Strong Communities Program FAQ, eligible activities for use of the funding include:

• Acquisition, not to exceed $5,000 per property index number.
• Rehabilitation, not to exceed $75,000 per PIN.
• Demolition, up to $40,000 per PIN.
• Tree, shrub and debris removal; lot treatment and greening.
• All “reasonable hard and soft construction costs” related to the listed activities, which the IHDA must approve.
• Administrative costs, which may total no more than 10% of the total grant.

“So where we can get these [homes], get them either fixed up, put them out to contractor who turn around and want to sell them or, if they’re bad enough, then it gives us the money and it pays for the demolition of it,” Blackert said. “We’ve been really successful with our demolitions that we’re able to convey that property to the adjoining property owner, so it’s not just sitting as a vacant lot. That was our goal.”