How Peoria County renters get emergency help with the rent
Peoria County splits its rent help by township, which surprises many people the first time they ask for assistance. This page is a guide to the township relief offices, Peoria charities, and county programs that may help pay rent or hold off an eviction, with a current address and phone number for each. Where you apply depends on which township you live in, who is in your household, and in some cases your military service.
The help takes different forms. Township General Assistance is a monthly grant paid out on a resident's behalf, the charities make one-time payments on back rent, and the county's veterans commission covers rent for qualifying veteran households. Housing choice vouchers and free eviction defense are covered further down the page.
Nearly every program here checks income, and most want the late notice or lease in hand before deciding anything. Funding also moves in cycles through the year, so an office that says no one month may say yes the next. Asking twice is normal.
Township relief offices and General Assistance
Illinois law makes each township responsible for General Assistance, a program of monthly grants toward basic living needs for very low-income adults, with the money paid by the township directly to vendors such as landlords rather than handed to the applicant. Peoria County has twenty townships, and each one runs its own office with its own supervisor.
City of Peoria Township - 427 W. Main Street, Peoria, IL 61606 Phone: (309) 674-8237 - Website: https://peoriatownshipil.com/. The Township Relief office serves residents inside the Peoria Township boundary, which covers a large share of the city of Peoria but not all of it, so confirm your township when you call. General Assistance applications, which can be used to pay rent costs, are picked up and returned in person with a photo ID and Social Security card, and grants go to adults without minor children in the home; a landlord verification form is part of every application. Families with children are directed to the state office listed below instead.
Every other township. Residents of Richwoods, Limestone, Chillicothe, and the county's smaller townships apply through their own township supervisor. Contact information for each township official is in the county's Service Directory, or ask at your village or city hall for the supervisor's number.
Cash assistance through the state's Peoria office
Illinois Department of Human Services — Peoria Family Community Resource Center - 103 NE Jefferson Avenue, Peoria, IL 61602 - Phone: (309) 671-8100 - Website: https://www.dhs.state.il.us/. Families with a child in the home apply here, or online at ABE.Illinois.gov, for TANF monthly cash assistance, which a household can put toward its rent. Caseworkers at this office also handle other benefits as well, and the statewide help line at (800) 843-6154 answers application questions when the office is busy.
Charity help with back rent in Peoria
The Salvation Army Family Services Center - 417 NE Adams Street, Peoria, IL 61603 Phone: (309) 655-7272 - Website: https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usa-central-territory/north-and-central-illinois/peoria-metro-area/. The back rent program here makes payments for households that clear its review and are behind with a landlord, and it extends to mobile home lot rent and contract-for-deed payments, which few programs touch. Intake slots are limited and generally open by phone at the start of each month, filling the same morning, so call ahead to ask when the next application day falls and what paperwork to have ready.
Central Illinois FRIENDS - 120 NE Glen Oak Avenue, Suite 201, Peoria, IL 61603- Phone: (309) 671-2144. Website: https://centralillinoisfriends.org/. Peoria County residents living with HIV can receive rent assistance through this nonprofit when funding permits. Requests go through the applicant's medical case manager, so the first call can be to either the case manager or the FRIENDS office to get the paperwork moving.
Tazwood Community Services — Peoria office - 7625 N. University Street, Suite B-2, Peoria, IL 61614 - Phone: (309) 690-6500. Website: https://www.tazwoodcs.org/. This is a utility program that protects the rent money. Tazwood handles home energy assistance for Peoria County, and for a tenant juggling a past-due Ameren bill against the rent, an approved energy payment or reconnection grant keeps that money available for the landlord instead. Applications run by appointment during the program year, with crisis cases such as a pending disconnection taken by phone even when the schedule looks full.
The county's own rent fund for veterans
Harold A. Fritz Veterans Assistance Commission of Peoria County - 4234 N. Knoxville Avenue, Peoria, IL 61614 Phone: (309) 681-2554 - Website: peoriacounty.gov. Peoria County funds this commission to give emergency, short-term financial assistance to county veterans and their dependents who cannot cover basic needs, and rent payments are one of its main uses. The office pays current rent for approved veteran households but not security deposits or back rent, and its officers also file VA benefit claims at no charge, which can raise a veteran's income for good rather than for one month. Assistance for housing costs follows a standard of need, so bring discharge / eviction papers, proof of income, and the lease.
HCV - housing choice vouchers in Peoria County
Peoria Housing Authority - 100 S. Richard Pryor Place, Peoria, IL 61605 - Phone: (309) 676-8736 - Website: https://www.peoriahousing.org/. The authority runs the housing choice voucher program for all of Peoria County, paying a share of the monthly rent straight to participating landlords on behalf of very low-income households accepted onto the program, and it owns income-based apartment communities of its own in the city. The main voucher waiting list opens and closes with funding, while separate lists for veterans, non-elderly residents with disabilities, and other groups follow their own schedules, so ask the office which lists are taking names. How the voucher program works in general is explained on the Section 8 housing page.
Income based legal services that may help renters
Prairie State Legal Services — Peoria office 101 SW Adams Street, Suite 800, Peoria, IL 61602 - Phone: (309) 674-9831 - Website: https://www.pslegal.org/. Low-income tenants, and seniors regardless of income, can get free legal help with evictions, subsidized housing disputes, and unsafe living conditions. Peoria County also runs an Eviction Courthouse Project with the circuit court and the county bar, placing free attorneys at eviction hearings for tenants who pre-screen through this same phone number, so a renter with a court date already set should say so when calling.
Heart of Illinois 2-1-1
Dialing 2-1-1 in Peoria County, or calling (309) 999-4029, reaches the Heart of Illinois referral line at any hour. It is useful here for a specific reason: several Peoria programs, including the Salvation Army's rent intake and the township energy call-in dates, work off monthly schedules that change, and the 2-1-1 directory tracks those details between updates to any page, this one included. Treat it as the schedule-checker alongside the listings above rather than the starting point.
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