Officials have decided to join a consortium with Du Page County and Aurora and Naperville to bring more federal funds to Du Page for affordable housing.
In a 5-2 vote, the Wheaton City Council agreed last week to join the home program, which was established by the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act.
Under the act, the county receives funds for rental assistance, home buyer assistance, property acquisition and rehabilitation.
This year, the consortium received about $1.3 million. Although allocations have not been made for 1994, the consortium hopes to realize an increase of 7 percent with Wheaton’s participation, bringing the total allocation to $1.5 million.
Under the terms of the program, the county serves as the lead agency, and the cities provide members who help decide how the funds are allocated.
City Council member Robert Mork, who voted against the consortium, said he was opposed it because the city was not guaranteed a fixed amount of dollars, even though certain obligations were imposed.
“Nothing guarantees that Wheaton gets money,” he said.
But council member Linda Davenport said that not having a fixed allocation for the city could mean that Wheaton would receive more dollars than it would otherwise. For instance, if Wheaton asked for $250,000 for a rehabilitation project and allocation formulas were limited to $200,000, the city would lose out.
Davenport pointed out that the terms of the act emphasize rehabilitation projects. This year, the city is piloting a program in which senior citizens’ homes are repaired.
