CHANDLER, ARIZONA — More than 200 families have moved to Topeka, Kansas, since the city's Choose Topeka relocation incentive program launched in 2020, with 90% of participants remaining in the city. The program offers up to $15,000 to people who relocate to Topeka and is funded by a half-cent county sales tax.

Participants have come from 37 states. Bob Ross, one of the program's leaders, said the incentive has attracted people seeking lower costs of living. "They recognize that the cost of living that they can get here is so much more meaningful to them," Ross said in an interview about the program. "This is a city where the American Dream is still possible."

The program also includes a "boomerang" incentive that offers former Topeka residents $5,000 to move back to the city. Allison Reynolds, a high school teacher and Topeka native, used that track to return with her husband, Jacob Reynolds, and their newborn from Northern California, where a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house costs approximately $500,000. Less than two years ago, the couple were living in Northern California before relocating to Topeka in their early thirties.

"The grant incentive that we applied for and received completely covered our moving expenses," Allison Reynolds said. "It would have been unfeasible for us financially without support from someone else."

Jacob Reynolds said the grant eased the financial strain of the move. "They might have made the move without the grant, but it would have definitely left a hole in our pocket. That down payment on the house kind of emptied us out," he said.

The couple purchased a four-bedroom home in Topeka for $179,000. Their monthly mortgage payment is $1,300, compared with the $1,800 they had been paying in rent in Northern California. The $500 monthly difference is now allocated to childcare. Allison Reynolds is expecting a second child.

No independent evaluation of the program's long-term economic impact on Topeka or Shawnee County taxpayers has been published. The program's statistics are drawn from program administrators.