STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU) — Two new grants for home-related projects have been released by the Stevens Point Redevelopment Authority.
The grants and funding are to improve the neighborhoods within Stevens Point by assisting homeowners and properties who are most in need. It’s also to encourage the development of otherwise challenged properties. One of the grant programs helps residents to be reimbursed for materials purchased for property improvement projects. The other program is to reimburse owners who decide to demolish their property.
Mark Kordus, the Neighborhood Improvement Coordinator for Stevens Point describes why the city set up the grant program to reimburse up to $1,000 for low to moderate income residents that make improvements on their property.
“The idea is that this would help for small projects. Interior exterior, and maybe water heater replacements things like that. Or a replacement of a door or a window or something like that for property owners who are of low or moderate income in the City of Stevens Point.”
The second grant, which is open to businesses and homeowners, is to help with removing some of the blighted houses in the older areas of Stevens Point by refunding demolition costs up to $15,000 to build a new home on the property. Kordus explains its to give homeowners an option with the house.
“We wanted to encourage homeowners or give them an option to either take that house down or rebuild something for themselves. Or simply as perhaps a speculation to take the house down because it’s an incentive to take that house down a put something else up. But it would allow them to recuperate their costs on the demolition.”
Kordus explains the funding for these grants came from revenue generated from a redevelopment authority project. “The funding came from the redevelopment authority. And the redevelopment authority has done a subdivision project in which there was some revenue generated. And the money that’s used as the revenue that was generated from that subdivision is used to fund this program.”
These grants are available on a first come first serve basis and applications are open now. Kordus says if people have any questions they can give the Neighborhood Improvement department a call or have a pre-application consultation over the phone. Applications can be found online at the city’s website.
