Sterling, Rock Falls receive nearly $400,000 in state grants to rehab or demolish vacant homes

Local neighborhood revitalization plans are getting a nearly $400,000 shot in the arm in the form of two grants – $246,400 for Sterling and $146,800 for Rock Falls – from the state.

The grants are part of $10 million in community revitalization grants from the state’s Strong Communities Program, part of the administration’s Rebuild Illinois capital plan, that is being given to 68 municipalities, counties and land banks to be used to create affordable housing and for community development, the Illinois Housing Development Authority said in a news release.

The money can be used for the acquisition, maintenance, rehabilitation and demolition of abandoned residential properties, including tree, shrub and debris removal, lot treatment and greening and other reasonable costs associated with returning blighted properties to productive use, the release said.

Rock Falls will use its share for its Homestead program, Mayor Bill Wescott said.

In it, the city offers empty or blighted homes it has acquired title to a homesteader for as little as $1, with the requirement that the homesteader live in the home at least 3 years and fix it up, returning it to the city’s tax rolls while also lifting the property value of the surrounding homes.

Some of the money also will be used to mow, clear away shrubbery and otherwise keep up such homes until they are taken over, or to demolish them if need be.

“This grant is good for 3 years, then chances are high we would be in line for another one,” Wescott said.

Sterling has similar plans. The city code department has identified five homes for demolition, four for rehab, and the city will use its grant money to acquire those properties that it does not already own and knock them down or fix them up and sell them, City Manager Scott Shumard said. Some of its money also will be used for mowing and general upkeep, he said.

Created in August 2020, the Strong Communities Program provides grants of up to $250,000 to local government agencies to return vacant residential properties to productive and taxable use. A total of $30 million in grant funding will eventually be awarded through multiple funding rounds, the release said.