
Health benefits seen in efforts to create affordable housing on Peoria’s south side
PEORIA (25News Now) – Funding is available through the Peoria City/County Health Department to add low-income housing for areas of Peoria in the 61605-zip code.
The area has lost a lot of housing in the last five years. The city demolished around 350 vacant houses with American Rescue Plan Funding.
“All the houses were unfortunately past a point where they hadn‘t been maintained. They all needed to come down. And really, we’ve seen positive feedback from a lot of the residents in the area, who noticed a lot less boarded up, a lot less vacancy, and a lot less abandoned homes,” said Joe Dulin, the city’s community development director.
The health department is looking to help fill this void.
The department is seeking proposals from non-profits that can use the funding to create affordable housing out of existing homes, with the intent to sell them to low-income buyers.
Health department leaders are looking to give this funding to an organization that will partner with another non-profit and train them in this type of work.
One of their goals is to increase homeownership on Peoria’s south side.
“For a lot of people, that’s a huge need. Once that’s addressed, they can really start focusing on other issues within their environment such as nutrition, economic development, education,” said Monica Hendrickson, the health department’s public health administrator.
Approximately $700,000 of funding is available from the health department. This money comes from the Public Health Equity Fund, through the American Rescue Plan.
The health department hopes to announce the chosen non-profits at the December Board of Health meeting.
This is not the only initiative trying to increase housing in the area.
Peoria Opportunities Foundation is breaking ground on new affordable apartments within the next six months. The apartments will be located near the Garden of Hope.
Also, the city recently received congressional funding to partner with Habitat for Humanity to build six new houses on the former site of McKinley School.
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