HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council will take action on some revisions to a housing incentive program during Tuesday’s meeting.
Planning Director Ryan Hvitlok hopes that some revisions to the down payment match incentive program will provide more opportunities for people to take advantage of it.
The City Council approved allocating $70,000 for housing initiatives during the 2017 budget. The Housing Commission created the down payment match incentive to promote home ownership in the city’s featured neighborhoods.
The city received two applications in 2019, both in the College Grove neighborhood. The down payment match incentive account has $17,371.78 remaining, more than enough funds to continue the program into 2020.
What Hvitlok is proposing is that the city removes the requirement that participants be Reno County residents except for current homeowners. Currently, the city is competing with cities like McPherson, Haven and Maize for new residents. Hvitlok feels that keeping the program available only to residents of Reno County does nothing to encourage potential new residents from outside of the county. He noted that two such requests had to be turned away because they were from outside the county.
Hvitlok would also recommend extending the limitation of not currently owning property to any out-of-county applicants.
Tuesday’s meeting of the Hutchinson City Council begins at 9 a.m. and will be streamed online.