Down payment offer hoped to encourage Riverdale employees to live where they work
yor Zenovia Evans looks at Riverdale and sees sturdy brick bungalows and
stately Georgians on leafy streets. She sees houses in need of a little tune-up
before becoming homes for families and young professionals.
"We have good, quality housing that is affordable," Evans proclaimed. Most of
the employees at village hall do not see it the same way. Of the 100 workers on
the village payroll, 90 do not live in Riverdale. The exodus has been rapid
in recent years, with perceptions about failing schools, rising crime and
floundering business prompting employees to look elsewhere. To reverse the
trend, village hall is taking a page from the playbooks of their counterparts in
the western suburbs. Starting this month, the village is offering $5,000
toward a down payment for any employee who wants to buy a home in Riverdale.
Matching funds from the Illinois Housing Development Authority push the
incentive to $10,000. There is one string attached: Recipients have to live
in Riverdale for five years. If the promise is broken, the money must be
returned.
Patterned after St. Charles
The grants, combined with the services of counselors
specializing in home financing, are the latest carrots in the effort to get
village employees to work and live in the same place.
Village administrator Bill Cooper said the large number of workers living
outside Riverdale is resented by residents who feel public employees should
spend their paychecks where they earn them. Riverdale once required employees to
live in a 16-mile radius of the village. The stipulation was dropped, however,
after an outcry in village hall.
"The ones that have moved have moved for valid reasons," Cooper said. "But I
think some would not mind moving back. Our big thing is to find an incentive to
get people to move back to Riverdale."
The strategy is called employer-assisted housing. After some successes in the
private sector, the approach has found fans in government, most notably in St.
Charles.
An employer-assisted housing program was designed to help St. Charles village
workers cope with runaway housing costs in the western suburbs. The same program
in Riverdale is viewed as an enticement for people to make an investment in a
decaying town.
The other side of sprawl
The village is the first south suburb to extend workers a
hand in purchasing a home.
Evans said suburban growth patterns - which put workers farther from their
jobs and create imbalances in the amount of rental property from one community
to the next - are forcing villages like Riverdale to get creative. "We all have
the same problems, but they are unique," Evans said. "We have problems with
housing." Riverdale represents the flip side of suburban sprawl. Development on
the suburban fringe has enticed homeowners to buy bigger houses on cheaper land.
That luxury is impossible in Riverdale, where the residential base is confined
to one square mile. Left behind are absentee landlords who put little money in
their properties. According to the 2000 Census, nearly half of the 5,441
households in Riverdale are rented. Of the existing housing stock, 13 percent is
occupied by subsidized renters. "Most of our employees grew up here," Evans
said. "When they wanted to purchase their own house, they had to look
elsewhere."
Signs of hope
The mayor said her
ultimate goal is for area businesses to follow her lead and offer similar
incentives. The reward, she said, is a more dependable work force because
commuting times are slashed and family emergencies are not as hard to tackle.
"It is easier to find a babysitter to stay with your child for 20 minutes after
school versus two hours after school," the mayor said. Samantha DeKoven, a
housing specialist with the Metropolitan Planning Council, said
the grants have been known to stimulate growth in older communities.