Wicker Park Booster
June 13, 2007
By Mark Lawton

Part of an affordable housing project on the 2600 block of West North Avenue that has been years in the making is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2007.

The completed development will offer three buildings aimed at three markets.

Construction started six months ago on 24 lease-to-own affordable apartments. Residents who stay 15 years will have the right to buy the apartments at affordable prices. Marketing of those units is scheduled to start in three months and the apartments should be ready by the end of this year.

Another building will feature 53 units of affordable housing for the elderly. Hipolito "Paul" Roldan, president and CEO of Hispanic Housing Development Corporation of Chicago -- which is developing the housing -- expects to purchase the property in the next three weeks and begin construction immediately. The units are scheduled to be completed by late summer 2008.

The first two building will be reserved for families who make 60 percent of the median income in the Chicago Metropolitan area. For a family of four, that is roughly $36,000.

A third building will contain 16 condominiums sold at market rates. Roldan hopes to complete purchase of the property in the next month, with construction to follow for six or seven months.

The entire project will cost $29.1 million.

The development is at the behest of the Humboldt Park Empowerment Partners, a coalition of hospitals, churches, block clubs, elected officials and others who have created a plan to create housing, retail development and jobs.

The housing development received a push in 2002 when that section of North Avenue became part of a Tax Increment Financing District, or TIF. A TIF freezes property taxes at a chosen level. Taxes below that level continue to go to taxing bodies such as parks, schools and city services. Taxes above that level are put into a TIF fund that can be invested in infrastructure, private development or other items.

The need for affordable housing for Hispanics in Chicago is great. Roldan says he ran across a statistic four months ago that he "couldn't get his brain around."

"Between 1970 and 2004, 96 percent of the population growth in the Chicago metropolitan area has been Latino," said Roldan.

For that section of North Avenue, the story goes further back. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, much of the Puerto Rican, Mexican and South American population developed along the lakefront communities. Lincoln Park, for example, was the center of a large Puerto Rican community.

As development occurred, those populations moved west to Westtown, Wicker Park and Humboldt Park. Roldan has a mixed take on that development.

"In a sense, the gentrification happening east of Western Avenue is, I think, great for the city," said Roldan. "On the other hand, many people in the planning process wanted to see if they could level the playing field with public resources. When the dust (of gentrification) settles in 20 years, it will be a community that's diverse and integrated economically."

Alderman Manuel Flores, 1st, also approves of the project

"It's a model project that allows affordability in an area where land is very expensive and housing is very expensive," said Flores.