Home Sweet Menomonie

Home Sweet Menomonie combines public, employer and private contributions to create a no-interest, partly forgivable loan for down payment assistance to employees of participating businesses who wish to own homes within the City of Menomonie.  It is designed  to help address a critical shortage of workers and is intended to help employers attract and retain employees by offering no-interest, partially forgivable loans for down payments to purchase homes in the city.

The Home Sweet Menomonie loan program can provide up to $10,000, amortized over a flexible schedule at no interest and the last year’s scheduled payment may be forgiven.

Click here to read about Home Sweet Menomonie’s first six months of success – Dunn County News, August 2019

To become a partner with us, we ask that you make an annual charitable donation to the Home Sweet Menomonie Fund at the Community Foundation, a 501c3 public charity. All your employees become instantly eligible for participation in the program for that calendar year.

When you have an employee ready to buy a home in Menomonie, direct them to the City of Menomonie’s Home Sweet Menomonie webpage or call the program administrators at 715-235-9081.

Your annual gift is based on the number of your local employees:

1-20……………….$500
21-50……………..$1,000
51-100……………$2,000
101-300………….$5,000
300+……………..$10,000

Click here to download the Partner Donation Form

Home Sweet Menomonie was created to help address a critical shortage of workers in Menomonie.

“There is currently a near crisis situation developing in the U.S., and Menomonie and Dunn County are no exceptions,” says Eric Turner, Executive Director of the Dunn County Economic Development Corporation.  “The situation is the dire need for talent production, retention and attraction.”

One of the many initiatives to keep and attract talent to the city is Home Sweet Menomonie, which is intended to help employers attract and retain employees by offering no-interest, partially forgivable loans for down payments to purchase homes in the city.

This innovative program model is a partnership involving the City of Menomonie, the Community Foundation of Dunn County, and the Greater Menomonie Development Corporation who are welcoming local businesses & industries, medical service providers, and educational institutions to participate.

The goal of the program is “to increase awareness and resources for homeownership with local employees, increase homeownership rates within the city, increase resources for the renovation of homes, and root local employees within core neighborhoods,” said Dan Ostermann, Senior Vice President for BMO Harris Bank and Vice President of the Greater Menomonie Development Corporation, as well as an organizer of this new loan program.

What makes people want to put down roots and build a life somewhere?

Georgina Tegart, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Dunn County, said the Knight Foundation had partnered with Gallup recently on a “Soul of the Community Report” to find an answer to that.  They found that, “Statistically, the factors of why a skilled workforce is content in a particular place are: welcomeness, social offerings, and community aesthetics. Salary, job title, weather, and corporate structure are far less important”.

Tegart added: “That made it clear to us at the Foundation that meaningful economic and workforce development must include rooting skilled employees within the local community, and assisting them to purchase a home is an import step in the rooting process”.

Under the program, employees of businesses who choose to participate would be eligible to borrow up to $10,000 for a down payment.  The repayment schedule would be flexible and the last year of the payment may be forgiven.  The loans would be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Ostermann said supporters believe the program will help attract employees to businesses in Menomonie and retain them through home ownership.

“The recession spurred the movement of young people to big cities, particularly those from rural America. This down payment assistance program intends to reverse that trend for Menomonie,” Ostermann said. “Rather than just offering incentives to employers, we are giving it to the workers, one by one.”

To participate in the program, a business will make a tax deductible contribution to the Home Sweet Menomonie fund held by the Community Foundation of Dunn County.  An employee of a participating business would fill out an application and submit it to the city.  The home can either be new or existing, but it must be owner occupied.

The city will inform the applicant of the amount of the down payment assistance award within 21 days.

The repayment schedule would be between five and 10 years.  Any documented improvements the new owner makes to the property may be forgiven from the final year of the scheduled payment.

As Eric Turner said, “This would benefit the city, and more importantly, the employees and businesses that would put their roots down in and strengthen their ties to Menomonie. Home Sweet Menomonie is the nexus of community and economic development in the city”.