Jun. 7—The City of Effingham is getting closer to having a final plan to address the city’s need for affordable housing.

During its meeting Tuesday, the council heard from Kris Walton, a community revitalization planner with the Illinois Housing Development Authority, who has been helping the city develop a detailed plan to address its housing needs. Effingham Economic Development Director Todd Hull said developing the plan, which officials began working on about two years ago, has been “quite an undertaking.”

“If you recall, we did do a housing needs assessment where we surveyed the community,” Walton said. “We got a pretty good result back from that, a lot of good data, and then we did undertake the housing stock survey where we looked at every parcel in the city.

“We took a look at the exterior condition, roof condition, sidewalk condition, road condition, a lot of different things like that.”

The data compiled from the surveys reflects a need for more affordable homes for renters, who occupy about 37% of the homes in Effingham, and Walton said this percentage is lower than that of most other communities. He also noted that approximately 30% of renters and about 13% of home owners in the city are “cost-burdened” — which means they spend more than 30% of their monthly income on housing.

“That’s extremely high,” he said. “Affordable housing sometimes can scare people. It’s not Section 8. It’s not public housing. It’s affordable housing, and I want to make that distinction.”

Walton said the housing stock survey revealed that while Effingham has an “aging housing stock,” its homes are, for the most part, in “great exterior condition.” The survey also revealed that there are very few vacant homes in the city.

“A lot of the other communities I represent are losing housing because it’s not being maintained,” Effingham City Attorney Tracy Willenborg said. “I think you have to enforce those things because you see the loss of housing in so many small communities from failure to maintain and enforce their nuisance regulations.”

Additionally, Walton said the residents that have been surveyed or participated in the recent community meeting also identified a need for more better access to affordable child care, more youth engagement and support services for the city’s more vulnerable residents.

“Those are some of the key takeaways from that meeting,” he said. “I thought it went really, really well. We had a lot of great feedback.”

Effingham City Commissioner Larry Micenheimer said that while he believes that some may find the term “affordable housing” to be “kind of threatening,” he thinks it’s important to ensure that the city has enough affordable homes for its workforce.

“This will be something we’ll use,” Micenheimer said regarding the housing plan. “It’s not going to draw dust on a shelf somewhere.”

Walton told council members a complete plan to address the city’s housing needs should ready and in their hands by the end of the summer.

Effingham City Commissioner Merv Gillenwater was absent Tuesday.

In other matters, the council:

—Recognized Trey Dasenbrock of the Effingham Police Department for his promotion to sergeant following the retirement of Sgt. Scott Volpi.

—Recognized the Effingham Police Department’s new officer, Ashley Ruholl, who introduced herself to the council during the meeting.

—Accepted a quote from IMCO Utility Co. in the total amount of $39,808 for materials for the water main at St. Louis Avenue, from Main Street to the dead end on St. Louis Avenue.

—Authorized the lease of city property located near Glenwood Street and East North Avenue to Kimberly Manuel who owns an adjacent property.

—Authorized the acquisition of a temporary use permit and the purchase of an easement for utility purposes from Dustin Fuesting at 923 N. Merchant St.

—Authorized the acquisition of a temporary use permit for utility purposes from David and Brenda LaDew at 107 W. Mt. Vernon Ave.

—Authorized the acquisition of a temporary use permit for utility purposes from Jenni Doan at 207 W. Mt. Vernon Ave.

—Authorized the acquisition of a temporary use permit for utility purposes from Isabel Elwood at 109 W. Mt. Vernon Ave.

—Approved a resolution allowing a portion of city streets to be temporarily closed for Fourth of July fireworks.

—Authorized the execution of a master software and service agreement and statement of work from Quicket Solutions Inc. for a new crash report software for the Effingham Police Department.

—Accepted a proposal from Effingham Asphalt Co. in the amount of $586,810 for the first phase of the city’s 2024 Resurfacing Project.

—Approved a bid tabulation for the first phase of the city’s 2024 Resurfacing Project.

Nick Taylor can be reached at nick.taylor@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300132.