After receiving more than $9 million in state funding, the McLean County Center for Human Services plans to develop a new apartment building for low-income renters.
The funding is part of $123 million in state and federal dollars recently allotted by the Illinois Housing Development Authority [IHDA] to agencies that will oversee 14 developments of what's called permanent affordable housing.
As defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], permanent supportive housing offers both housing assistance — like subsidized rent or long-term leases — and supportive services for people with disabilities.
In Bloomington, that housing will come in the form of a four-story apartment building with 24 single-bedroom units. Joan Hartman, CEO of the McLean County Center for Human Services (CHS), said the hope is to house renters who are similar to the type of client the nonprofit already serves. The first floor of the development will operate as a sort of "recovery community center," she said, where support services for mental health and substance abuse disorders will be available.
"Our target population for that program is individuals with a severe mental illness who are in need of permanent supportive housing — so their income would be at or below 30% of the area median income in order for them to qualify," Hartman said in an interview with WGLT.
CHS operates 18 apartments that are owned by a landlord and subleased to its clients, but has never taken on a housing project from the ground-up, Hartman said, so the development — which will be called Sue's Landing after Sue Pirtle, a former CHS clinical director — is new territory for the nearly 100-year-old social service agency.
"In our community, we really have a shortage of housing across the board, in terms of affordable housing. When we look at people who are at or below 30% of the area median income, the availability of housing is almost nonexistent," she said. "... We just thought it was really important for us to step up and start providing that service. We're really excited about it."
The three-acre development, which CHS expects to close on about six months from now, will be located on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in west Bloomington near Chestnut Health Systems. The Center for Human Services is set to purchase the land it needs from Chestnut; it will then will work with Normal-based Design Mavens on the project, as well as IHDA.
Hartman also said CHS will "be in partnership with the Continuum of Care and with PATH [Crisis Center]" to screen unhoused people for possible placement in the permanent supportive housing units.
She added much of what will determine when construction begins — later this year or next spring — depends on weather, still.
The funding CHS is using is from the largest award made under the IHDA's Permanent Supportive Housing Program, according to a press release from Gov. JB Pritzker's office.
“Governor Pritzker tasked the Illinois Housing Development Authority, along with our partner state agencies, to help achieve functional zero for homelessness across the state,” IHDA Executive Director Kristin Faust said in the release. “We did not view this as a challenge, but an opportunity to do our part to increase housing for some of Illinois’ most vulnerable. With limited resources, we strategically leveraged various funding streams to award the single largest permanent supportive housing round in our history.”
