Affordable housing proposal in Portage Park outlined
by BRIAN NADIG
Those living in a proposed 55-unit affordable housing complex at Central and Waveland avenues in Portage Park would have household incomes that are in line with 70 percent of area families, according to the project’s developer, Full Circle Communities Inc.
Most of the apartments would be reserved for households with annual incomes of between $23,000 and $46,000, and 70 percent of the existing families who live within a mile of the site fall into that category, said project manager Lindsey Haines. “These incomes are in line with the people right now,” she said.
Monthly rents would range from $850 for a one-bedroom unit to up to $1,400 for a four-bedroom unit, with about 20 percent of the units reserved for veterans. The rents for veterans would range from $430 to $650.
The Jesse Brown and Hines Veterans Administration medical centers are partners in the project, and plans call for the Illinois Housing Department Authority and City of Chicago to subsidize a portion of the $17 million project.
Haines said that the Northwest Side Housing Center, 5233 W. Diversey Ave., plans to provide financial counseling to tenants in the proposed building at 3655 N. Central Ave. in an effort to help those families eventually buy their own home. Another partner in the proposed project is the Metropolitan Family Services, 3255 N. Central Ave.
The proposed building would be constructed on the former site of a Dominick’s grocery store, where several years down ago a CVS Pharmacy was built on the southern half of the parcel. The northern half remain vacant.
Plans call for a four-story, green-certified building, 40 parking spaces, a community room, a library and computer lab, and a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units. A ground-floor medical tenant also is being considered for the project, said Full Circle executive director David Gottlieb.
Full Circle, a nonprofit corporation, commits 75 percent of project proceeds to support services for the tenants in its complexes, which includes a recently constructed building at 3060 N. Milwaukee Ave.
The proposed project on Central is in its preliminary stages, and at the request of Alderman Gilbert Villegas (36th), a community meeting was scheduled for Tuesday evening, Jan. 26, Haines said. In the mid-2000s, a condominium structure was proposed for the site, but the project never materialized.
