DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — After completing renovations in 2023, the City of Decatur and the Central Illinois Land Bank Authority (CILBA) recently sold their first Abandonment to Rehab Program home.

The program rescues run-down, unoccupied homes from potential demolition and restores them into habitability. Two Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) grants and American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funding from the City helped CILBA repair the home on South Maffit Street.

“This is a crucial step toward the City Council’s priority goal of community revitalization,” Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe said. “This home rehab initiative with the land bank allows the City to move from a reactive approach on blighted properties to a proactive one in which we are actively partnering with CILBA to rehab vacant homes, bring them up to code, and provide home buyer opportunities.”

The City of Decatur is also collaborating with Land of Lincoln Credit Union (LLCU) to help contractors. Several have utilized the institutions’ low-interest loan fund while working on CILBA’s home rehab projects.

A total of $80,000 has been contributed to the cause by CILBA and Decatur, half from a Land Bank Capacity Program grant and the other half from an IHDA Strong Communities Program grant.

“The City of Decatur has been a great supporter of this rehab program with the land bank and I can’t wait until we can start marketing the next round of rehabbed homes for sale,” CILBA’s Executive Director Mike Davis said. “The land bank cannot do this work alone and having great partners such as the City, IHDA, CICD for homeownership counseling, and LLCU for contractor financing is critical for success.”

CILBA even wrote a new grant for Decatur in 2023 — a $337,000 IHDA Strong Communities grant — which can be used to aid the land bank’s next round of vacant home rehabilitations. That includes four works-in-progress, which should finish up in between May and July of this year, and five more upcoming projects pending state grant approvals.

“We know that fixing blight in Illinois communities has far reaching impacts, lifting up property values, supporting economic growth, and increasing the supply of much needed affordable housing for working families while maintaining the integrity of the surrounding neighborhood,” IHDA Executive Director Kristin Faust said. “IHDA is thrilled to see this transformation take place in Decatur, and we look forward to seeing more successes through this program in the months to come.”

The Community Investment Corporation of Decatur, a partner of CILBA, will be offering homeownership education classes throughout the year to help create an eligible lineup of potential buyers for these rehabbed homes. The next workshop will start on April 25.