Ripon Creating Affordable Housing Programs

The City of Ripon will be taking tax increment revenue from Tax Incremental District #1 to create two affordable housing programs in the City. City Administrator Lori Rich says it is something the state requires when you extend the life of a TIF district, which they did for an additional year. She says one program is the Build Ripon Housing Program, which awards grants of up to $10,000 to build new homes. The other is the Renew Ripon Housing Program, which awards loans of up to $10,000 for housing improvements. She says they had $183,000 to work with for the two programs. Guidelines are still being finalized and will come back to the Common Council for approval.