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City approves financing for SROJahn design to go up near Cabrini
By Jeanette Almada
Special to the Tribune, Published April 17, 2005
Construction of a single room occupancy building will begin this summer near the Cabrini Green public housing complex, which is being transformed into a mixed-income neighborhood.
The new SRO, at Division Street and Clybourn Avenue, is designed by Helmut Jahn, of Chicago-based Murphy/Jahn. He has also agreed to design a mixed-income building next door to the SRO.
Lakefront Supportive Housing is developing the five-story, 96-unit SRO at 1234-54 N. Clybourn Ave., a city-owned site that has been vacant for more than a decade. The developer is a non-profit organization that specializes in building and managing housing for homeless families and singles while providing social services for homeless families and individuals.
The Clybourn SRO will be the first of five supportive housing projects to go up on city-owned land near public housing complexes that are being turned into mixed-income neighborhoods, according to John Markowski, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Housing and a member of the Community Development Commission.
"As we planned the overall CHA transformation, the mayor said he wants to see at least one senior project and one SRO project in every transformation area," Markowski said in an interview last week, following the commission's approval of financing for the Near North Side project.
The Housing Department is negotiating with developers of four similar supportive housing projects: near the former ABLA complex on the West Side; in Washington Park, near several public housing complexes along the former South State Street public housing corridor; near CHA-owned scattered site housing in Woodlawn and North Lawndale.
Three of the city's five supportive housing projects will be built with family-sized apartments as well as rooms for singles, Markowski said. Originally, Lakefront built only SROs (under the name Lakefront SRO) for single homeless tenants. But two years ago, it changed its name to Lakefront Supportive Housing and shifted its focus to building for a mix of homeless families and singles, according to Lakefront President Jean Butzen.
"We find that in [building apartments for a mix of families and singles] we can create more heterogeneous communities," Butzen said, adding that since changing its name Lakefront has built two projects for mixes of families and singles on the Far South Side. Lakefront's $13.5 million Near North Side SRO will meet a substantial need for single homeless men and women in the neighborhood, Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) told commissioners.
The project will receive $1 million in TIF (tax increment financing) assistance, and Lakefront will pay $1 for the 32,997-square-foot development site, which is appraised for $3.96 million, Markowski said.
The Housing Department has issued $690,000 in low-income housing tax credits to the project. "Lakefront Supportive Housing will raise $6.5 million in equity from those tax credits," Markowski said.
Lakefront has applied to the Illinois Housing Development Authority for $5.1 million in the form of a grant; a low-interest, forgivable loan; and in State Equity for Donation tax credits, according to Butzen.
Aside from developing and managing its properties, Lakefront provides social services. "It is a beautiful building designed by a renowned architect, but more important [Lakefront] will provide job-training and has great social programs...services that are badly needed in a neighborhood that is undergoing dramatic change, that will not only give people a place to live but help them to sustain their place in society," Burnett told commissioners. "Because we agree that supportive housing is more than buildings and should also provide people with tools that improve life circumstances for the homeless, we are working to assemble those social services, working with groups like Lakefront Supportive Housing with a proven track record in providing supportive housing," said Ellen Sahli, the Housing Department's deputy commissioner and head of the Mayor's Liaison on Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
In January, the Housing Department took over the city's effort to end homelessness from the Department of Human Services. Initially tenants will pay up to 30 percent of their income for the building's 240- to 260-square foot units, each with a private bath and kitchenette. But many of those tenants may eventually pay the $550 to $560 market rate as they move up the economic ladder, Sahli said in an interview last week. CHA tenants will lease half of the apartments. The remaining units will be leased to homeless tenants identified through shelters and community organizations, according to Lakefront's Butzen. Those tenants will meet federal guidelines defining homelessness: singles or families who live in facilities specifically designed to serve the homeless, such as a shelter; those who live in nontraditional spaces such as a car or abandoned building; or those who live on the streets.
Singles or families who are doubling up with relatives do not qualify, Markowski said.
Butzen expects construction to begin in late June and to be finished about a year later.
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