Considering buying or rehabbing a home?
In Springfield, we want to help families achieve their dream of home ownership and encourage reinvestment in our northside historic neighborhoods. We think improving Springfield’s housing stock – even if it’s one home at a time – will create a wave of renewed community pride and reinvestment. Plus, old houses are cool. Where else can you peel back layers of linoleum to find a brand-new, yet 100-year-old wood floor? Springfield’s historic neighborhoods are close to some of the area’s best shopping, health care, sports and entertainment.
In this guide, you’ll find that the City of Springfield has several affordable housing programs that encourage home ownership by offering down payment assistance and land-trust partnerships through the Springfield Community Land Trust. Community service organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and programs through the state and federal government offer several financing options toward owning a home. Banks and other lenders also have several low-interest options available for financing the purchase of a home or, reinvesting in existing homes by making improvements.
While our main goal is increasing home ownership, the City encourages the development of quality affordable housing by offering low-interest financing to developers who want to reinvest in Springfield’s historic neighborhoods by rehabbing older homes and bringing them back to their former glory with the use of quality building materials and craftmanship. Again, there are several public and private financing options available.
Springfield City Councilman Richard Ollis grew up within blocks of his family’s 130-year-old business which operated on Commercial Street for more than 90 years. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ollis watched Springfield’s growth and development toward the south.
“Unfortunately during this same timeframe, many of our heritage neighborhoods deteriorated. Much of our older housing stock has fallen into disrepair with many homes converted into rentals. Nuisance properties and dangerous buildings have been a constant issue, gaining much-needed attention with new enforcement actions,” Ollis said. “If we want to continue to grow and prosper as a community, we must do more than enforce codes. We must reinvest.”
According to Ollis, community leaders have begun an effort to focus on the need to reinvest in Springfield’s historic neighborhoods. Read the full story on sgfneighborhoodnews.com.