Janesville Community Development Authority Meeting Summary – June 18, 2026
Janesville Community Development Authority Meeting Summary – June 18, 2026
The Janesville Community Development Authority (CDA) met on June 18, 2026, in the City Hall Council Chambers with a quorum present. The agenda lists the meeting as June 17, 2026, but the meeting metadata provided identifies June 18, 2026. Members present were Michael Cass, Scott Greenland, Lisa Higgins, Jennifer Anderson, Chain Seaman, Danielle Williams, and Max Ryan. The CDA approved routine items by consent, heard a presentation on two housing assistance programs, and received a director’s report on the status of 2026 federal grant funding.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the May 20, 2026 meeting minutes by consent.
- Approved the April Budget Performance Report by consent.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public offered comments on items not requiring a public hearing or on matters subject to CDA action.
Discussion Items
- Housing Program Overview – Anna Boden, Housing Program Specialist, presented two main housing programs:
- Revive & Thrive (home rehabilitation): Uses CDBG federal funds for exterior/structural repairs such as roofs, windows, siding, and exterior doors. Provides a deferred, no-interest, no-monthly-payment loan up to $24,999 for owner-occupied principal residences. Household income must be at or below 80% of county median income ($76,800 for a household of four), and the home’s assessed value cannot exceed $228,000. Homeowners must be current on property taxes, utilities, and insurance. Since January 2025, 13 projects have been completed, one was in progress and expected to be completed within a week, two projects were obtaining bids, two were ongoing, and one application was in process. Staff outreach includes lenders, real estate agents, contractors, churches, insurance companies, the ADRC, and the city website; applications are available online, through Housing Services, by email, and in Spanish.
- Home Possible (down payment and closing-cost assistance): For first-time home buyers (not having owned a home in the previous three years). Provides up to $15,000 based on closing need; the buyer contributes $1,000 of their own money, which can include an appraisal and private inspection. The loan is forgiven after five continuous years of occupancy as the primary residence. Requires a HUD HQS inspection; eligible properties include single-family homes and condominiums, and the buyer must have $1,000 in cash savings at closing. Since January 2025, eight families have been assisted, and two applications were scheduled to close the following week. The program requires home buyer education/counseling with a HAT-certified agency, and a new post-purchase counseling check-in will be offered six to twelve months after purchase.
- Q&A and discussion: Boden clarified the rehabilitation program is for existing homeowners; home buyers may later qualify if they have enough equity. Code enforcement inspectors carry brochures and refer homeowners to the program. The $228,000 value cap and income limits are federal, updated annually, and are based on a metropolitan area formula that includes Beloit; a CDA member noted the formula uses data that lags the current market and that only six homes currently listed for sale in Janesville would qualify. Homeowners must obtain three bids from licensed contractors to ensure comparable pricing; decisions are made with the homeowner and include contingency funds. The two programs generally cannot be combined because HQS items must be resolved before closing and rehab assistance requires sufficient home equity, though one applicant who did not qualify for Home Possible later qualified for a roof repair through Revive & Thrive.
- Director’s Report: The city is still awaiting its 2026 grant funding. The consolidated plan, submitted with the City of Beloit and Rock County, was resubmitted to HUD the previous week after Beloit modified its plan. Once HUD approves the plan and returns contracts, the city can begin spending 2026 funds; planning for 2027 begins next month.
Announcements
- The Plan Commission will host an open house on the proposed complete overhaul of the zoning code at Hedberg Public Library, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM, with a presentation around 5:45 PM and an opportunity for public feedback. A CDA member noted the update includes housing provisions. The announcement was made during the announcements portion despite the chair’s initial statement that discussion of governmental business was prohibited.
Key Outcomes
- Approved minutes and Budget Performance Report by consent.
- The housing program presentation was informational; no formal vote was taken on the programs.
- The CDA will continue outreach and processing for Revive & Thrive and Home Possible applications.
- The CDA will monitor HUD’s approval of the 2026 grant plan and begin 2027 planning next month.
Meeting Transcript
Michael Cass. Here. Scott Greenland. Here. Lisa Higgins. Here. Jennifer Anderson. Here. Chain Seaman. Here. Danielle Williams. Sure. And Max Ryan. Here. All right. We're all here. We've got a quorum. First order is to approve the minutes. Does anyone have any comments or anything to change on the minutes posted to the agenda? Hearing none, those will be approved by consent. Next item would be the budget performance report, also included in the agenda. Is there any portion of that anyone would like to pull out for discussion or any questions? None that will approve by consent as well. Next, we have a request for request for public comment regarding items on the agenda not requiring a public hearing on matters which can be affected by CDA action. Seeing no one in the crowd, we will move on from that to our next agenda item. Presentation on the housing program overview. Otherwise, they're in your packet as well. Yeah. So my name is Anna Boden, I'm the housing program specialist. And today I'm gonna present to you the two main housing programs that uh we have right now. Uh the two programs, and I don't know if I can how can I pass this? Just scroll down on the mouse. Right. Oh, wait, there. So the two key programs are the revive and thrive, that's the home rehabilitation program. The other one is the uh home possible that is for down payment and closing cost assistance. So I will start with the revive and thrive. That is the rehabilitation program. Uh we use CBDG, C DBG uh federal funding for this. And uh right now, what we are trying to address is uh focusing on the exterior, looking at the structural side of the houses. So preserving things like the roof, the window, siding, exterior doors. Um with the storms that we have had last year, this year, uh, it has become you know something that we thought that it was important to address to be able to keep again that those houses uh to be uh safe and secure and structurally uh sounded. It has been um a successful program um since it is a deferred loan where there's no interest and there is no monthly payments. So whatever it is up to that twenty-four thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars, that is the total we can do for each product project. Uh, whatever it is that we spend on the project, it will be the same amount uh always. Um what we do is um the condition is that you have to stay occupying that house as your main residence. So this is a program that is for homeowners, um, so not not rental assistant homeowners that are looking to you know keep those um those homes uh healthy, sound, structurally sound, and and safe. And uh for the city, you know, if you look at it, uh we look to maintain also the existing uh housing stock that we we have. So we have been doing a lot of different um uh oh sorry. So being a federal funding uh program, uh one of the things that we're gonna look is we look to assist to um households that are uh under that 80% of the county median.
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