Fox Valley Habitat likely to help Aurora with home rehab
The city of Aurora is likely to gain a new partner in its efforts to rehab and resell 10 vacant or foreclosed homes using federal stimulus funding.
The new partner, Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity, is likely to gain two properties it can fix up and sell to low-income families, five of whom already are on a waiting list.
An agreement that met preliminary approval from aldermen Tuesday night would let Habitat take charge of two properties purchased with funds from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
The grant program provides municipalities money to buy vacant and foreclosed properties, renovate them and resell them to qualified buyers making up to 120 percent of the area's median income. The idea is to clean up dilapidated properties and allow renters more opportunities to buy affordable homes.
Under the proposed agreement, Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity would rehab a home at 355 Michigan Ave. and construct a new house at 121 N. Highland Ave., Alderman Mike Saville said.
The house on Michigan is ready to be handed over to the nonprofit, which then would foot the bill for all renovation costs. But the city would pay to demolish the house on Highland before giving the property to Habitat, said Karen Christensen, manager of the city's neighborhood redevelopment division.
Partnering with Habitat helps the city ensure all Neighborhood Stabilization program funds are spent this year. The program began in 2008 with a four-year deadline for all money — in Aurora's case, about $3 million — to be spent.
“We're thinking this would be a good way to pass some of the houses along,” Christensen said.
The nonprofit still has to follow all the standards of the city's building code and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, including building two-car garages. Jeff Barrett, executive director of Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity, said his organization will be sure to construct an appropriate home at the Highland address, likely for between $105,000 and $110,000.
“We're going to build a house that fits with the character of the neighborhood,” which is dominated by one-and-a-half story houses, Barrett said.
He said Habitat expects to spend $60,000 fixing the home on Michigan, which the city bought for just under $100,000. Once the renovations and construction are complete, Habitat can sell the home to a buyer who meets the grant program's income standards and has received eight hours of homebuyer counseling.
“It's exciting to be able to get a house we can rehab,” Barett said.