City of Pekin Home

The Community Development Department is responsible for a variety of programs and initiatives designed to advance the overall health and viability of the City’s residential housing stock, funding and administration of public works projects, and funding and administration of public service organizations.

A branch of the Planning and Development Department, Community Development staff are engaged in a purposeful effort to enlist community people to collaboratively work to shape and guide the development and economic prosperity of their community, making full use of local and external resources.

Community Development Block Grant Recovery Act Allocation

• CDBG-R
• City of Pekin Allocation
• Action Plan

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)

The administrative purpose of the planning and expending of the City of Pekin's CDBG dollars is to develop a viable urban community by providing decent housing, a suitable living environment and expanding economic opportunities principally for low- and moderate-income persons.

City staff also actively participates in the following organizations/committees:  Pekin Coalition for Equality, Heart of Illinois Homeless Continuum of Care, Tazewell/Woodford Service Providers, Regional Fair Housing seminar, Illinois Municipal Human Relations Authority, & the Mayor’s Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities.

A five-year Consolidated plan (2005-2009) was approved by the City Council in March 2005.  Every year the City staff prepares an Action Plan (estimating how the dollars will be spent and who benefits) and a consolidated action plan evaluation report (CAPER) (actually how the dollars were spent and who benefited).  For additional information on the below listed projects, please click on interested project.

The following projects were identified as high priority projects in the 2005-2009 Five-Year Consolidated plan:  Owner Occupied Homeowner Rehabilitation, Street Maintenance, Code Enforcement, Derby Street Sidewalk, active participation in the Heart of Illinois Homeless Continuum of Care (HoIHCoC), Pekin Coalition for Equality and dollars allocated to support the causes of the local United Way.

Illinois Housing and Development Authority (IHDA), Single Family Owner Occupied Rehabilitation (SFOOR) program

The Community Development staff has identified the increasing aging & deteriorating housing stock within the City as an issue.  The limited amount of dollars available through the CDBG funds initiated a search for additional funds to address housing issues above the $20,000 maximum.  Each year the Community Development staff applies to IHDA for its SFOOR program dollars.  The City of Pekin has been awarded SFOOR dollars since 2005.

The purpose of this program is to assist in the provision of safe and decent housing for owner occupied lower income families, in neighborhoods with the greatest concentration of lower income households. Such assistance shall consist of physical improvements to the dwelling unit to bring the dwelling unit up to code.  To that extent not only does this program improve the condition of a housing unit, this program extends the longevity of the unit, eliminates blighting influences within the neighborhood, and stabilizes the existing real estate tax base of the city.

The SFOOR program is utilized with CDBG allocated dollars.  A maximum of $40,000 per house is possible for the SFOOR program. An additional $15,000 CDBG maximum per house is available.  The maximum per house, utilizing both programs, is $55,000.

Homebuyer Assistance Program

An innovative program sponsored by communities throughout the state that offers families the opportunity to buy their own home, the home buyer assistance feature of the Assist program provides families with funds to pay all or most of their closing costs and down payment. This program enables families with good credit, but little extra capital, to buy their first home. Go to Documents

Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway

The Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway is a program of the Economic Development Council for Central Illinois, which is a Heartland Partnership company.   It is also one in a collection of federally designated roadways throughout the U.S. called America’s Byways.  Standards for using the America’s Byways logo may be obtained at www.bywaysonline.org.

We also encourage you to visit the Pekin Scenic Byway website.

CONTACT:
Anaise Berry, Director
Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway
(309) 495-5909
aberry@edc.h-p.org
124 SW Adams, Suite 300
Peoria, IL 61602