The Champaign City Council voted to reallocate a portion of approximately $4 million of the city’s unused bond money to the Illinois Housing Development Authority and the Eastern Illinois Economic Development Authority at its April 16 meeting.
The unused bonds, or volume cap, which is the funding from bonds between local governments, will be used for affordable housing and economic development activities by increasing the number of affordable housing units.
IHDA is a self-supporting authority created to finance affordable housing across Illinois. It partners with many organizations such as the EIEDA to deliver low-cost financing programs to keep Illinois residents working. Its funding mainly comes from bond financing, the Illinois Affordable Housing Trust Fund, HOME Investment Partnership Program, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and Illinois Affordable Housing Tax Credits.
Kerri Spear, Champaign neighborhood program manager, said this reallocation will support affordable housing programs throughout the state, and it will benefit people who want to buy homes in Champaign.
“It will also boost employment in the city because there will be more jobs available,” Spear said.
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She also said there aren’t any projects in urgent need of funding right now, so this is the best place to put the unused volume cap.
According to the city’s report, the allocation may benefit many IHDA programs, such as SmartMove, Welcome Home Heroes and Illinois Building Blocks. These programs offer a combination of down payment assistance, closing cost assistance, mortgage credit certification and favorable interest rates to home-buyers.
Kevin Jackson, Champaign neighborhood services director, said the allocation will fill a financial gap for housing not only in the city of Champaign, but also in many cities throughout Illinois. He explained that the fund provides below-market-rate financing for various projects and will hopefully help provide housing to more people in the area, as well as provide funding for nonprofit and industrial development projects.
“This fund will make it possible to provide more affordable housing, so more people will have a home of their own,” Jackson said. “There will likely be more jobs for people in the community, too.”
Council member Vic McIntosh, District 3, also said he thinks this project will help improve the quality of life. He said more people are likely to want to come to Illinois and the city of Champaign, and it is a good step to the growth of local economy.
The city of Urbana has also reallocated their unused 2013’s volume cap to the IHDA and EIEDA. This money will also go toward supporting the same affordable housing programs in Illinois.
Earn can be reached at [email protected].
