health or safety hazards, threats of physical danger and structural damage. It can pay up to $20,000 for emergency electrical, mechanical, plumbing or roofing work.

"This program helps people who don’t have the financial resources to fix an emergency situation affecting their health and safety," says Bill Patena, Peoria’s Neighborhood Services manager.

The city’s Public Housing Authority provides low-income, elderly and disabled residents with safe, decent and sanitary housing at an affordable price. It also provides rent subsidies to eligible, very-low-income people through the federal Section 8 program.

Not all of Peoria’s resident-assistance programs are limited to low- and moderate-income residents – or even to individual households. One of the most popular city efforts is the Neighborhood Grant Program, which dispenses grants of up to $12,000 to foster resident-initiated neighborhood improvements. Neighborhood groups have used the grants to add security lighting, install low-water-use landscaping and upgrade playgrounds, among other things.