GREDF, Adams County Board hoping to bring more housing to area

QUINCY, Ill. (KHQA) — Housing has been a long-standing struggle in Quincy, as well as in the greater Adams County area, and local officials are hoping to address the issue.

In partnership with the Adams County Board, the Great River Economic Development Foundation is moving forward with this discussion.

At last Tuesday’s Adams County board meeting, an incentive proposal of 1 million dollars in ARPA funds to offer zero percent interest to developers who plan to renovate housing in the area.

GREDF president Kyle Moore says that there is a significant lack of housing as well as jobs in the area.

“We have a severe housing shortage when it comes to the city of Quincy and Adams County, and on top of that we have over 600 open jobs our goal at GREDF is to make sure our economy keeps moving along and to do that we need people to fill those jobs which means we need housing,” said Moore.

Last month at the GREDF annual meeting, the organization said the main focus of 2024 is housing, and that focus has not waivered.

“We’ve been leading the charge on town attractions to bring more people here, but if we don’t have enough housing units available, we can’t bring people here, we can’t then bring them here to fill jobs, and so we know that’s the number one barrier right now that is keeping our economy from growing at a faster rate than what it already is.”

Moore says that GREDF has developed programs such as the small rental rehabilitation program, as well as the downtown home rehabilitation program to help with the shortage.

He says these have helped immensely in their pursuit.

“The city of Quincy has two housing programs that have really helped keep the supply coming into the market, whether it be the small rental rehabilitation program, the city also has a downtown rental rehab program and those are about 350-thousand dollars a year that they have been investing.”

Moore says that Adams County has 625 open jobs that pay over 35,000 dollars a year, along with 120 units for sale on the housing market.

Moore says that there is a 0.7 vacancy rate when it comes to market rate apartments.

Moore hopes that the board’s approval will fix this.

“Supply continues to not keep up with demand and so that’s where we’re hopeful the county board will invest in housing and increase the number of units that we have available. We know that between now and five years from now, we need another thousand units just to keep up with the demand in the area.”

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