City of Rock Island considers new housing rehab program using TIF funds

The Rock Island City Council took the first step toward launching a new program that would let some homeowners use money from tax increment financing to fix their homes.

“It’s no secret that Rock Island has some housing difficulties,” said Miles Brainard, Rock Island community development director. “We have very old housing, a lot of deferred maintenance.”

City leaders say it’s one way to combat the aging housing.

“The idea basically here is in an area that needs a little TLC, we’ll have another resource available to folks,” said Brainard.

The city wants to focus on the Old Chicago neighborhood.

“The goal is to not just stabilize housing conditions, but to improve the whole neighborhood character,” said Brainard.

Median income home owners will be able to get a 50-50 grant, up to $10,000. For those earning less than 80 percent of the area median income, they can get a grant of up to 100 percent of the cost, or $20,000. Funding right now for the program sits at $200 thousand split evenly between two TIF districts that make up that residential area.

“Looking around the state at areas like Marion, Illinois, who have employed a similar method and a similar program,” said Brainard. “They’ve seen great results, so we kind of want to learn from them and employ those lessons here.”

Brainard says the city will review the success of the program and its potential at the end of the year.

“We are looking at some of our other TIF districts around the city,” said Brainard. “If this is successful we would consider expanding the geographic boundary of those TIFs to encompass more neighborhood area and roll a similar program out anywhere we could.”

City council will vote on whether to approve the pilot program at their next council meeting.

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