The Perry City Council recently approved a pilot program that will assist upper story dwelling units in downtown Perry. 

The Council approved the creation of the Downtown Perry Upper Story Housing Pilot Program that aims to assist by reimbursing some costs for work being done on upper story dwelling units. City Administrator Sven Peterson talks about some of the reasons for the pilot program.

“So, it’s kind of two-fold. One obviously we want to encourage the renovation of those downtown buildings. Housing of course is always an issue in our community and something that we put a lot of effort into. Not only new housing and new apartment buildings, townhomes, duplexes, things like that but also that investment into our downtown core.”

The pilot program would be able to reimburse eligible projects up to $10,000 per unit, with 50-percent coming at the approval of the application with the other 50-percent upon completion of the project. Peterson talks about some of the benefits of the program.

“Trying to get that housing downtown, bring more people downtown that live there and maybe want to go shop in those downtown businesses or eat or socialize in some of our other establishments downtown.”

Some examples of uses for the funds include major structural renovations, installing or upgrading fire protection systems, increasing ADA accessibility and bringing the buildings up to current building code standards.